somewhat technical question about spam email

[steve2470]

I have an email account that I use for one company. I have never ever used it for any other reason. I've never listed it publicly in any way, used it for any other reason besides the company website, never used it for any catalogs, etc etc. For all purposes, it's totally invisible to everyone except for this company. I've never (until today) gotten any emails except from this particular company. I've had this account for about 2 years or so.

I got two spam emails with attachments today in this inbox. Color me totally shocked. I did not open the emails whatsoever and immediately deleted them without viewing them. They are now totally wiped from this email account.

Question #1- How did the spammers/criminals find me ? Through using every possible combination ?
Question #2- There is no way a spammer/criminal knows of this account, except for the fact there was no bounced mail from the account, correct ? I've read if you simply open the email, there can be a virus downloaded to your hard drive as well as notification back to the spammer/criminal.

Thanks in advance.

[blogslut]

1. #1 is likely how you got spammed

As for #2, you want to avoid loading images from untrusted sources in addition to avoiding opening strange attachments. You can probably configure your email client so it doesn't load images automatically - also turn off the preview pane.

[steve2470]

3. thanks, one last question

I was able to see the "username" of the spammers, the titles of their emails, and the fact that there were attachments to both emails. I could not see any images whatsoever. I'm safe, correct ?

[blogslut]

6. Probably

No guarantees. If you're worried, Housecall has a decent online scan tool:

http://housecall.trendmicro.com/

[steve2470]

8. ok thanks, I'll use that nt

[hollysmom]

2. not an expert, but

I believe they could have gotten your e-mail account from the web site.
Or maybe they guessed?

I have never gotten spam in my ebay only and paypal only accounts since they started until I was telling someone about my e-mail names (verbally and not over the phone,) they included all my e-mails on a group e-mail (because people are idiots and I should have know this was an idiot with a good memory) and now I get spam on all of them.

[steve2470]

4. it's possible they hacked the company website, yes, or someone inside took it nt

[hollysmom]

5. I don't think they have to hack a site,

but they have software that can look at sites and extract e-mails. I never post my e-mail on the net - I always put spaces instead of at sign if I have to post it, so it wont' be picked up by spammers.

[steve2470]

7. yes, I've never posted it on any forums or anything facing the public internet nt