Help me understand SPAM - I'm somewhat low tech

There are a few ways that spammers can get your email address without your permission. One is to create a program commonly referred to as a "harvester" or a "spambot". These programs make their way across the internet, looking for that "@" that generally indicates an email address. A second way is to use these programs to browse things like chat rooms and newsgroups for usernames and actual email addresses. Yet another way is to use "opt-in" services on websites that have people who are unversed in the internet simply input their address.

Perhaps the scariest method, however, is the "dictionary attack". Spammers can create a program that can open a connection with an email host (Hotmail, for example), and submit hundreds of random email addresses, recording the ones that actually exist. And once a spammer has a list of email addresses, they can sell these lists to other spammers.

Unfortunately, it's practically impossible to keep your email addresses private. There are always people out there looking to prey on those who don't know better. The best you can do is delete the spam and be careful about where you give out your address, which it sounds like you already are, so good for you! Also, I find the Gmail tends to have a much better spam filter than Hotmail. I've had my Gmail since I've had internet, and I've rarely gotten a spam message, much less one that actually gets put in my inbox instead of my spambox. My dad, on the other hand, has a Hotmail account and gets loads of spam. Again, it could just be that I'm more careful than he is. Hope this helped.

 

The majority of spam comes from you giving your email address to some service, that service or website sells the list of email addresses they've collected (often after the service is a failure so they try to make back some money from selling these emails, although equally as often they intend to do this from the start), then whoever buys them sells them again, and they keep getting passed around until everyone has a gigantic list of emails that regularly get targeted.

 

Yes, they probably don't know who they are sending these to, but just go ahead on the mass-emailing in hopes of finding customers. It's usually done by bots who get a load of alphanumeric combinations, or using the methods already mentioned.

Try not to reply to those emails or even open them, because some mass-mailing systems can track who open the email, clicked on a link it contained, and of course when you reply they can see your email address in the sender line. It tells them this email address is active.

 

I used to think that it was because I might have been doing something "wrong" with the account open or such (say....I was on a dating site or had been looking up other things...haha.) I know, techies probably think I'm being silly.

Then I realized that it just doesn't matter. I get spam at all my accounts, be it my school accounts or my account for my volunteer organization. It's best to know how to not spread it, like opening attachments. Completely ridding yourself of it is nearly impossible.

 

Exactly. The important thing to note here is that e-mail is free. So they can afford to send millions, nay, billions of mails, and all it takes to get a return on investment is one guy, who's in financial trouble, or insecure about dating or size down below, to reply in a moment of weakness.
The one common trend in spam is usually the promise of getting something (usually money, love, or sex) for nothing. And, in fact, spam is about getting something for nothing, but only for the one actually sending it out!