In June, Symantec researchers observed that certain spammers had refined techniques to simplify their e-mail harvesting process to get a guaranteed hit list full of bona-fide e-mail addresses. Methods for this kind of rapid acquisition include creating and sending spambots that crawl the Internet looking for e-mail addresses. Spammers lately have bombarded an e-mail server with addresses and then stored those that don't bounce. They have also obtained addresses by purchasing entire lists from other spammers or criminal organizations.
However they're obtained, these lists guarantee that spammers can send messages freely, without having to worry about being caught in spam traps or being blocked by those pesky spam filters.
