Why am I getting spam to this brand-new email address?

Why am I getting spam to this brand-new email address?

One of the questions we are often asked is “why am I getting spam to this brand-new email address?”

If you create an email address for a certain purpose, for example to create a login for a service, and then find that you’re receiving spam, it doesn’t necessarily mean you’ve been added to a spam mail list.

Many bots (and humans) will use logic to create email addresses that might exist on your domain, and send emails to those variations to see if they work.

For example, if you have a website example.com, and your name is Sam Jones (and your name is visible on the site), some logical email addresses for bots to try would be:

  • sam@example.com
  • samjones@example.com
  • sjones@example.com
  • s.jones@example.com

Other logical email addresses (among many, many others) are:

  • hello@example.com
  • info@example.com
  • sales@example.com

If you’ve chosen an email address similar to one of the options above, and you’re receiving spam, it’s very likely to be because of bots or humans just trying logical email addresses based on your domain.

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