Quote:
Originally posted by Gemini
I made a yahoo addy for my stepdaughter the other day... the next day I checked to see if she had written yet and there were 2 adult spams in it with the common remove, opted in, sorry if, and all that BS at the end. Yeah right.
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One of the most basic gathering techniques is using software to extract those emails from the mail server, using combinations such as A through ZZZZZZ (6Z), and word lists. Keep in mind that A through ZZZZ (4Z) alone is approximately 450,000 addresses, and on a major ISP (such as shaw.ca), around 90% of them will be taken, and of those, deliverability will be 40% absolute minimum. We all know how difficult it is to get hold of a short username for any major service, such as Yahoo email. A quality word list of 1 million common usernames, dictionary words and nicknames can be compiled in under 30 minutes if you know where to look... university FTPs, online dictionaries, and similar sites. Such harvesting software can be had for as little as 100$, and I've seen usernames extracted from the mail servers at up to 500 per second...
That said, it's an important consideration when choosing a mail address for a child. One of the best methods is to choose a string of random words and numbers. Of course, kids whine because they want a "short and cool" looking username. It's a choice between giving them what they want or reducing the possibility of shit mail. miss567janet543@ yahoo.com for example is less likely to be harvested than five5@ yahoo.com
