Question: How do spammers get my email address?

Answer:
For the most part, our PI member email addresses are picked up by spammers in the following manners:

a) If you have a web page and your email address is posted there, then spammers can use their software to surf the internet and copy anything that has an "@" sign in the phrase, such as JohnSmith@ (followed by the domain name)

If you have a web page, ask us about installing a "Contact Me" web page where serious friends or colleagues can type in their information and submit it to you privately without exposing your email address. To see a sample, CLICK HERE

b) If you sign up for LinkedIn, then you may be giving away all of your private email contacts. We found in recent years that the LinkedIn application for a "listing" asked for your email address and your email password! Then LinkedIn would go into your email account and copy out everyone whoever emailed you and everyone you ever emailed, and started sending out spam emails. It was horrible. In this case, you may have not given out your email address, but someone you emailed had their account hacked and ended up with your email.

One solution is to have a junk email account at gmail or Yahoo that you give out to websites you are unsure of. Everyone should have more than one email account, and the most private email account will be for your personal banking and other credit accounts.

c) Smart Phones have become vulnerable to being hacked with virus and Trojan horses that will copy all of your contacts, all of the incoming and outgoing emails on your Smart Phone. We have had reports from some members that try to access our www.ipiu.org home page from their Smart Phone and get redirected to a spam web site (or pornography). When the member would go home to use their laptop or desktop, they were able to get safely to our www.ipiu.org home page, which resulted in them calling their Smart Phone Tech Support center to remove all virus and Trojan horses from their cell phone. In other words, guard your cell phone from accepting suspicious emails and phone calls that may infect your phone.

d) Laptops and Desktops: If you are a telephone customer of Centurylink or other major companies, they now offer 24 hour computer support in fixing problems, installing Norton, and other very technical aids that cover every "device" in your home. The great news is their flat rate monthly fee of $5 to $10 to $15 a month, which beats taking your device to a repair shop or hiring someone over the phone. Comcast cable offers the service for $5 a month. Devices include all home laptops, desktops, printers, networking issues, and a host of other great support. For as little as $60 to $180 per year, you can imagine how this can save you thousands. These companies can also install their own free Norton Virus protection on all of your devices so that you can delete any problems of spammers getting access to your files that contain email addresses. Again, if you get hacked, then your friend or colleague's private email will get copied and placed on outgoing spam emails.

e) You may wish to retire some of your private emails every year or two by setting up a new one. An example would be retiring john.smith2012@ .com and replacing it with john.smith2014@ .com . Some of us don't need to retire our emails, but if the incoming spam gets overwhelming, then it may be due for a new change.

Please feel free to post any other ideas you have,

Brad