EMAIL_ID(several versions of this): Perhaps the most sneaky software , will capture your email address(and name) by you merely visiting a site, attempts to trick the browser into revealing name and email address by asking it to submit a form relies on the site visitor not running browser in at least default security mode (internet explorer) , if you are running in secure mode, a pop-up will warn you and you can cancel the action. (I believe this is how I got my email address pinched)

These are a few popular programs there are many others all working on a similar methodology. Spamming sites reveal the creators to be novice small business operators , people with a lot of time on their hands and unscrupulous marketers who think spam gets results, it is also clear they don't want to be traced and do take note of "complainers". Some of the software will remove "complainers" and opt-outs from lists ( fearing getting kicked off servers and law suites )

Information for web site owners:
If you check your log records you may find odd spider visits (not search engines ) these may be harvesters sweeping your pages and any linked pages. Spam hating web masters may do several things to deter spam position: robot warning text, poisoned scripts which lead to endless looping fake email addresses and one cookie I found on my computer was from SNARK.com (an anti-spam activist) which will send any spammer an account for $500 and a load of hilarious insulting text if a robot picks up the bait, any web master can put this script on their site. (There are other forms of collecting email for spam but this article only covers software harvesting )

Continue learning about email harvesting in part III of this article

Go back to part I of this article