How do these scam people get our email address?

I keep receiving these stupid scam emails offering lotto and money. I am annoyed with them, and my question is "how do they get our email adress?"

How do these scam people get our email address?
I agree, spam is stupid and so annoying..


It is quite possible that filling on-line surveys with your email address allows a spammer to tap into a huge data bank of people in many regions at any time. I think the trick is to: Have two email addresses;





Number 1 Email Account: A Yahoo one for pure spam (used for online surveys, sign up's, download sites, "they are your enemies who you wouldn't trust $10 with" )





Number 2 Email Account: Another one for business and personal use (eg the one that you give to your bank or telephone company, insurance, friends "you would trust these people with $10 of your money to pay you back later" )





Note: I pulled $10 out of the air. Basically you don't trust the Yahoo email address contacts and dont care what happens to the emails.. If we all used this little trick, spam might not be such a huge problem!
Reply:from places that we sign up for who put our email addresses on a list, or from filling out different surveys, and from other emails that are forwarded, or that we forward. It aggravates me, they used to be confined to my bulk folder, but now alot of them are getting into my regular email for some reason.
Reply:I don't know but I wish it would stop.
Reply:It really is an irritating problem. My best guess is that they buy a list from someone else. I probably get over 100 per day. Sometimes more.
Reply:Some emails they harvest from lists or websites (if it's posted), other times its what is known as "dictionary attack", where they'll send multiple emails out using godonlyknows how many combinations of letters and numbers in order to get a "hit".





The viagra spammers and hot stock tip spammers use this too.
Reply:when you answer a survey or apply to something free every that glitters aint gold keep that in mind the next time