How are spammers getting content for their spam emails?

Email marketer from Warrior Forum explains that spammers utilize web crawlers to index and copy content from websites, which is then repurposed and used in spam emails.

Email marketer from Reddit explains that spammers often recycle old content from legitimate email marketing campaigns by scraping the content and resending it.

Email marketer from Quora shares that spammers sign up for various newsletters and promotional emails using bots, then scrape the content from those emails and incorporate it into their spam campaigns.

Email marketer from Neil Patel Blog explains that spammers often scrape content from websites using automated bots to gather text and images, which they then repurpose for their spam campaigns.

Email marketer from Email Vendor Selection shares that spammers obtain content from data breaches where email lists and associated information are stolen, and then used to personalize spam emails or mimic legitimate communications.

Email marketer from Email Geeks shares that spammers are grabbing content from somewhere else, potentially from legitimate mailing lists or web-hosted versions of newsletters.

Email marketer from Email on Acid explains that spammers employ hidden images or tracking pixels in emails to identify active email addresses and subsequently scrape any visible content from the rendered email.

Email marketer from Mailjet explains that spammers obtain content by purchasing or acquiring old, outdated email lists that may contain compromised accounts or harvested email addresses, which they use to distribute spam.

Email marketer from Litmus shares that spammers use data gathered from social media to tailor content or directly extract information for email spam.

Expert from Email Geeks explains that spammers use BCC functionality by connecting to systems and putting addresses in the RCPT TO during the transaction, but use a random address in the To: header when sending DATA.

Expert from Spam Resource shares that spammers gain access to legitimate email accounts through phishing scams, malware, or data breaches. Once inside, they can extract content from past emails, contact lists, and documents to craft personalized spam messages that are more likely to bypass spam filters and deceive recipients.

Expert from Email Geeks shares that some spamware pulls batches of email addresses and sends spam to all of them (Bcc / RCPT TO) and uses just the first one in the To: header, or sometimes the From:, so you get spam that’s “to” someone with an email address with a local part close to yours.

Expert from Word to the Wise explains that spammers can scrape content from social media profiles and other public platforms. They use automated tools to collect data like names, interests, and photos, which they then incorporate into targeted spam messages to increase their relevance and effectiveness.

Documentation from Spamhaus answers that spammers leverage botnets (networks of compromised computers) to send spam, and that these botnets can also be used to infiltrate networks and steal proprietary content for spam campaigns.

Documentation from IETF shares that spammers employ address harvesting techniques, which involve using automated programs to scan web pages and other online sources for email addresses, which are then used to send spam.

Documentation from Cloudflare responds that spammers can exploit API vulnerabilities and abuse unprotected APIs to access and extract content from various online services, which they then use in their spam campaigns.

Documentation from OWASP shares that spammers compromise user accounts through techniques like session hijacking or cross-site scripting (XSS), enabling them to access and steal content for spam emails.

Documentation from Microsoft explains that spammers use phishing techniques to trick users into providing login credentials or sensitive information, which can then be used to access accounts and steal content for spamming purposes.