Spammers have many tricks up their sleeves when it comes to finding valid e-mail addresses to add to their databases. These are some of their more popular methods:

• sending messages to random e-mail addresses and seeing which messages are accepted (usernames such as “joe” and “bob” get far more spam than “xyz3443”)
• finding e-mail addresses on Web sites
• monitoring public mailing lists
• getting e-mail addresses from chain letters
• collecting address books and e-mail from virus-infected personal computers
• trading lists with other spammers

As a result of these techniques, even e-mail accounts that have never been used and that don’t have the e-mail address published anywhere have been shown to receive spam. Luckily, the spam detection engine on the Mail@umd system is effective at detecting and diverting spam to your Junk Mail folder (log in to your account using Webmail at http://mail.umd.edu, click “Folders” then “Junk Mail” to see your spam). It is good practice to visit your Junk Mail folder periodically to make sure no legitimate message has been mistakenly labeled as spam.