How SPAMmers get E-mail Addresses: from Earthlink

Spam on the Internet, in general, has been becoming more and more of a problem in recent weeks, with spam amounts Internet-wide more than doubling in the past year.

A software package called GeoList Professional has aided spammers in the collection of e-mail addresses. You can read about it via the link provided.

http://www.wired.com/news/news/technology/story/18383.html

If you surf the web with a browser containing your email settings , post to Usenet newsgroups without munging (altering) your address, join mailing lists, buy products online, sign up for specialty web services, have a listing at any of the online directories, or list your email address on a personal web page, then spammers could get your address. They also simply guess addresses based on combinations of letters and numbers, mailing their spam to any address that happens to match and disregarding the millions of invalid addresses that result.

As stated in the EARTHLINK(tm) PRIVACY POLICY: http://www.earthlink.net/about/policies/privacy.html

EarthLink ...does not share ... information with third parties.

Spammers make a habit of using BCC: addressing, which can be filtered fairly easily. An example for filtering out BCC: messages in Netscape Messenger 4.x:

Under "Edit", "Mail filters" click on 'New'. In the dialog box which appears, from left to right, select 'to or cc', then 'doesn't contain', enter your username in the far-right field, then select 'Move to Folder' = 'trash'.

Currently Bright Light Technologies is working on Spam with its partners using probes. Twenty Global Probe Network Partners including EarthLink contribute an array of e-mail addresses to enable spam detection and abatement through the 24x7-manned Bright Light Operations Center. You can read more about this at this link:

http://www.brightlight.com

"EarthLink supports the free flow of information and ideas over the Internet. EarthLink does not actively monitor nor does EarthLink exercise editorial control over the content of any Web site, electronic mail transmission, mailing list, newsgroup, or other material created or accessible over EarthLink's Service. However, EarthLink reserves the right to remove any materials that, in EarthLink's sole discretion, are potentially illegal, may subject EarthLink to liability, or violate this Acceptable Use Policy."

As the U.S. postal service does not filter junk mail, EarthLink does not filter E-mail spam on an individual basis. EarthLink may include filtering in the future. EarthLink 5.0 software includes spam filtering software. Though EarthLink does not actively filter spam at the server level, EarthLink does look for spam patterns and blocks mail from that server.

Unlike junk faxes there is no current law to prevent this. Under current law we are limited to actions spelled out in our acceptable use policy. We continue to lobby for effective legislation against Unsolicited Commercial E-mail but our legislative bodies have been busy with other issues. You may wish to contact your elected representatives on this issue. My suggestions remain to filter your mail or if this task seems too difficult, allow Brightmail to do this for you at no cost to you other than entering a few clicks to join their free service.

http://www.brightmail.com/

If you continue to utilize our established abuse resolution channels by forwarding the messages, with full headers intact, to abuse@earthlink.net, we will continue to either take immediate action, if the spam originated at EarthLink, or forward complaints along to the appropriate networks so that action will be taken on the accounts responsible. EarthLink abuse department receives 40,000 to 50,000 E-mails per week! messages are scanned for patterns, not read individually.