The following are some of the main resources used to harvest e-mail addresses:
* USEnet and the Web -- Spammers search Internet newsgroups (otherwise known as USEnet) for e-mail addresses included when participants post messages to the group. They also employ software "robots" to search Web pages for e-mail links. The links appear as "MAILTO:" tags in the HTML and will launch an e-mail composition window when you click on them. Therefore, anytime your address appears in any Web page it is ripe for harvesting by spammers.
* Mailing lists -- Some mailing list software will publish the e-mail addresses of all list members if given the proper commands.
* Online and paper directories -- Sites like Four11 ( www.four11.com ) and BigFoot ( www.bigfoot.com ) publish e-mail addresses over the Internet.
* IRC and chat rooms -- Some Internet Relay Chat client software will provide your e-mail address to anyone who asks for it. AOL chat rooms are another favorite because the profile for each user is viewable as well.
* Web browsers -- Configuring your e-mail address in your Web browser makes it relatively easy for spammers to record the address using coding tricks. Pointing your browser to www.privacy.net/analyze/ will let you see some of the information you're sharing with the Web at large.