Hi. Introducing myself to forum

[CabbagePatch]

I'm CabbagePatch (my pen name, not the one on my birth certificate).

I am a mid level techie in that I understand technology, I know what an IP address is, and I can grasp new technology very quickly.

I cannot figure out how some bozos out there are getting my "private" email address. I stress because only my family and a few friends know it. I actually have about 30 business email addresses primarily created because of this email spoofing thing that I experience.

I'm hoping to learn this as well as other things and if I stumble upon a pearl of wisdom not already posted, I would be glad to share.

Thanks everyone,
CP

[wimiadmin]

Welcome CP. Thanks for joining.

As for people getting the email address, if it's something like joe@domain.com then they've really just guessed and got lucky.

However, if the address is something like cabbagepatch@domain.com then that's a different story. When your friends forward jokes to you do they BCC? If not, then your email address is shown to all of the people in the list....then when they forward your email address is shown to everyone they forward it to and so on. Somewhere in that list there are people that "make money from home with your computer" and harvest all of those addresses and sell them.

I promote and teach BCC like crazy to my family and friends. Most of the time it works.......My rule is this.....they don't want SPAM so I teach them how to prevent it from getting in their mailbox....then they listen.