# Can Internet spammers determine if I have opened their messages? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [November 30, 2005, 3:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-internet-spammers-determine-if-i-have-opened-their-messages/333386 "2005-11-30T15:42:56Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [December 1, 2005, 2:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-internet-spammers-determine-if-i-have-opened-their-messages/333386/21 "2005-12-01T14:37:50Z")
> [@mint my own](#): > > Personally I’m never bothered with spam. I have two addresses, one is private and the public one can get all the spam, I don’t care, because I only check it when I’m expecting something specific. I’m guessing you haven’t had the ‘private’ address long - either that or there’s some filtering going on - perhaps at ISP level. Any email address that you _use_ will eventually be targeted by a spammer, because _using_ the address means sending it out across public servers. ---
**Author:** ![filmore](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/7993a0/32.png) [@filmore](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/filmore)\ **Post date:** [December 1, 2005, 4:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-internet-spammers-determine-if-i-have-opened-their-messages/333386/22 "2005-12-01T16:42:34Z")
> [@Mangetout](#): > > Any email address that you _use_ will eventually be targeted by a spammer, because _using_ the address means sending it out across public servers. I’m not sure this is the case. I have not heard of a spammer getting addresses by sniffing packets going across public servers. They usually get the addresses by searching websites, newsgroups, or getting you to sign up for things. I’ve also heard of viruses which send the addresses from your address book to the spammer. So if you have a “private” address that you use carefully, you’re not guaranteed to get spam. A good way to protect your email address is to use dynamically generated email addresses when signing up for something on the web. That way if the dynamic address gets stolen, you can disable it. [Spamgourmet.com](http://Spamgourmet.com) offers a service like that. And the reason why it’s bad if the spammer knows you opened the mail is because then your email address becomes much more valuable. He knows it got through your spam filter and you looked at it. Spammers want lists of email addresses that they know are valid. By loading an image in the spam, they know the email is valid. More spammers will want your address and you’ll get more spam. Also if you click a link in the spam, you can be tracked. Many times the link in the spam will have some sort of unique identifier. If you click the link, they know it came from an email they sent to your email address. ---
**Author:** ![rowrrbazzle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rowrrbazzle/32/414_2.png) [@rowrrbazzle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rowrrbazzle)\ **Post date:** [December 1, 2005, 10:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-internet-spammers-determine-if-i-have-opened-their-messages/333386/23 "2005-12-01T22:54:26Z")
> [@UncleBeer](#): > > But spammers aren’t the worst of your worries; there are scarier creatures than them out there. Including the damned federal government. Even worse, the damned UN. ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [December 1, 2005, 11:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-internet-spammers-determine-if-i-have-opened-their-messages/333386/24 "2005-12-01T23:31:39Z")
> [@filmore](#): > > I’m not sure this is the case. I have not heard of a spammer getting addresses by sniffing packets going across public servers. I’m pretty sure it happens, but in any case, there’s another way in which your email address gets widely and publicly distributed; glurge/chain letters/hoaxes and the like; the person who sent you the ‘forward this to all your contacts’ message also sent it _to all their contacts_; trouble is that they probably exposed your email address in the headers. Even legitimate messages sent to legitimate distribution lists may include your address in the header that is visible to all recipients. It only takes one copy of one of these messages to find its way to a compromised machine and your address is harvested, and you will start getting spam. You don’t have ultimate control over how people send you messages - I suppose you could get around this by not giving out the mail address to anyone, but in that case… why _have_ the mail address. ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [December 1, 2005, 11:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-internet-spammers-determine-if-i-have-opened-their-messages/333386/25 "2005-12-01T23:58:51Z")
In fact, you only have to _communicate with people_ - if one of them subsequently gets compromised by a mail harvesting trojan, then your address is vulnerable. There’s no way to ‘carefully use’ an email address so as to guarantee (or even nearly so) that it cannot get on a spammer’s list, unless that careful use actually consists of _non-use_. ---
**Author:** ![kanicbird](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/5f8ce5/32.png) [@kanicbird](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kanicbird)\ **Post date:** [December 2, 2005, 1:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-internet-spammers-determine-if-i-have-opened-their-messages/333386/26 "2005-12-02T01:54:24Z")
> [@](#): > > Stationary is very annoying you should stop sending emails with it. Yes, please stop that, annoying, unnessesary, and encourages unsafe emails. Learn how to email using letters, numbers, symbols and spaces. ---
**Author:** ![ed](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/c77e96/32.png) [@ed](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ed)\ **Post date:** [December 2, 2005, 3:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-internet-spammers-determine-if-i-have-opened-their-messages/333386/27 "2005-12-02T03:09:03Z")
> [@mint my own](#): > > Some people just have to do everything the old way and never see the need for change. Yes, all those programmers, system administrators, and DBA’s are just _terrified_ of change, which is why we don’t like HTML in our email. How observant. > [@mint my own](#): > > As for them getting your ip number when a picture is viewed, so what? You’re totally missing the point. The point is not that they have your ip address (which doesn’t do a whole lot for them), it’s that they’ve confirmed activity on that _email_ address, which would otherwise be impossible. This means they not only know that you looked at it, but when, and how often. It doesn’t take a rocket scientest to point out that this will just flag your address for even more spam, which most people would agree is just annoying. ---
**Author:** ![Manduck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/manduck/32/256_2.png) [@Manduck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Manduck)\ **Post date:** [December 2, 2005, 3:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-internet-spammers-determine-if-i-have-opened-their-messages/333386/28 "2005-12-02T03:51:21Z")
The worst: spam with stationery. ---
**Author:** ![Hometownboy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/5e9695/32.png) [@Hometownboy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hometownboy)\ **Post date:** [December 2, 2005, 7:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-internet-spammers-determine-if-i-have-opened-their-messages/333386/29 "2005-12-02T07:43:03Z")
> [@ftg](#): > > I have a PhD in Computer Science with over 20 years experience as a College Professor. I have published over 40 papers and my research appears in standard textbooks in Computer Science. I am not in any way shape or form backwards. Quite the opposite. Perhaps you should learn to take advice from experts rather than criticize them. Skipped lightly over those English classes, did we, Doc? “College Professor” is not a proper noun, and does not merit capitalization any more than does “street sweeper.” Nor, for that matter, does either use of “Computer Science.” [cite](http://www.cmu.edu/styleguide/capitalization.html#degree) [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-internet-spammers-determine-if-i-have-opened-their-messages/333386.md?page=1)