Another way spammers gather e-mail addresses is by harvesting them--running a software program that trolls chat rooms, Internet postings, Usenet discussion groups, and other online sources for e-mail addresses. To avoid being a victim of harvesters, use a disposable e-mail address for public consumption. When you post, don't use your primary e-mail address--use one you don't care about. If one address starts getting too much spam, just delete the account and move to another one. You can also trick harvesters by embedding a message into your e-mail address. For example, if your e-mail address is
[email protected], you might want to post your e-mail address as johndoe99(at)isp.com, or
[email protected].