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Ever wonder why you get so much spam? Where did all of this junk come from? Surely, it had to be that catalog you signed up for online. They sold you out!

Well, perhaps. I’ve used three different free mailing systems over the years, Hotmail, Yahoo, and Gmail. Here’s what I’ve noticed and picked up along the ways.

Hotmail:

Spam to hotmail accounts rarely includes your exact email address. It’s mostly something similar and sometimes not even close. I reactivated my account recently and examined the spam. Here are some samples (a good majority of these were found in the inbox):

1) Lose 30 pounds a day – To: soohtsayer@hotmail.com. First off, my email is my first and last name. So, how in the world I got an email that wasn’t even close to my actual address, I’ll have no idea. Second, what is a soohtsayer?

2) Authentic Viagra and Cialis – To: sandioz@hotmail.com. Just one question: Wouldn’t the viagra help me lose weight as well?

3) Up to 3 inches – To: timothytreesh669@hotmail.com. Wow, Hotmail is really terrible at this.

Mind you, I am not an expert on sending out mass emails nor the protocols used to send them. But, how in the world I get all of this, I’ll never know. Perhaps my actual email address is buried in some BCC field. Whatever!

Yahoo:

For whatever reason, all of these spam emails have my email address on them. Fine. Every now and then, one slips from the spam box into my inbox and thus, gets downloaded onto my computer every time I start Outlook. Looking through the spam box has become a boring every day ritual. I have to make sure REAL email doesn’t get into the spam box. (And, lo and behold, there is my monthly car statement. This is the 3rd time I’ve had to tag it as Not Spam).

Google

First off, I do not work for Google, own Google stock, nor have any benefit from them whatsoever. But Google does a tremendous job of keeping spam away. In fact, I can only recall once time I’ve had to delete a spam message. And, appropriately, it was in the spam box. When I check Google, I know the email I have there is legit (perhaps I should have my car payment sent there).

So what is the difference? Mostly, it all comes down to a cookie. No, not the ones you dip in milk. The other kind. The one web sites put onto your computer so they can remember your information. Did you allow Internet Explorer or Firefox to store your personal information so you won’t have to fill out all of those form fields a second time? That’s stored in a cookie. Most programmers, myself included, use them to store login information such as your screen name/user name. But, that’s only if you choose to (did you check the “Remember Me?” box?). Other than that, I and many others have no interest in storing your personal information. It’s more code for us to write!

But how does that relate to spam emails? Well, when you visit a site, they also can read the cookies. Typically, reliable sites will decode your information to help security. But, if they plan on decoding it, that means others will probably know how to decode it as well. So, it really doesn’t matter. When you allow a website to “remember you”, it remembers your email, and perhaps your password by writing a cookie that it will access the next time you visit the site. In the meantime, if another site you visit knows where that information is stored, it can read it as well! By choosing Hotmail or Yahoo to remember you, you’ve essentially created a path for other less reliable web sites to get your information.

It doesn’t just work for spam emails, either. Have you ever noticed sometimes when you visit a site they might have advertisings specifically for your location? Somewhere along the line, you allowed another website to store your zip code. The advertising website knows where that cookie is; they access it and deliver advertising from your local businesses. The best example I’ve seen from this is on a social networking site where some person is holding a sign that reads “Houston Rocks!”. How in the hell??? What’s funnier is that, even though I work less than a mile away, in a different zip code, if I access the same site, the picture will say “San Antonio Rocks!”. Whatever!

If all of this has made you paranoid in any way, you shouldn’t be. You should never be storing passwords or other information on websites, anyway. If you would like to start from scratch, however, you can start by clearing out your cookies. How depends on your browser, but you can find them in the “Options” menu. And the next time a site asks if you want them to “remember you”, just make sure it’s unchecked! It’s a start!

Tags: Spam, stop