Email extractors are tools designed to scrape public email addresses found on websites, social media, and online directories. While their original purpose might seem harmless, such as for building email lists, they often lead to serious issues like spam, phishing scams, or identity theft.
This guide explains how email extractors work and why your email address is targeted, how to secure your inbox, what to do if your email address is compromised, and how Proton Mail keeps you safe.
How an email extractor works
Also known as an email scraper or email grabber, an email extractor scans websites, forums, or social media profiles using crawlers or bots, which navigate through links to find and extract email addresses. These tools rely on patterns to identify valid addresses, often involving regular expressions to match the email format, such as name@domain.com. Once an email address is found, it’s added to a list. This information can then be sold on grey markets and used within sales teams or phishing campaigns.
Why your email address is valuable
When your email is harvested by an extractor, your inbox may flood with unwanted promotional emails, making it harder to manage legitimate messages. Plus, cybercriminals may send fraudulent emails to steal personal or financial information. Malicious actors can use your email address to impersonate you or launch attacks on your contacts.
How to protect your inbox from an email extractor
Here’s what you can do to keep your email safe from extractors:
Avoid publicly displaying your email address
Think twice before posting your email address publicly. If you need to share contact information, consider alternatives like private messaging or secure forms. If you must display your email, obfuscate it by writing as name [at] domain [dot] com to confuse bots.
Use hide-my-email aliases
For one-time sign-ups or less important interactions, it’s best to use hide-my-email aliases provided by Proton Mail instead of your primary email address. An alias forwards any received messages to your inbox and can be easily removed if you start receiving spam.
Monitor email leaks
Email extractors often target databases containing compromised data, making it important to regularly check if your email address (and other personal information) has been exposed in a data breach or leaked online. The Dark Web Monitoring feature provided by Proton Mail automatically checks and alerts you if your email addresses and other personal data have been exposed in known data breaches.
What to do if your address is exposed to email extractors
Having your email address is only the first step for email extractors since they often need to confirm that the address is active and being used. This is why suspicious emails sometimes include links that, when clicked, signal to the sender that your email is monitored, making it more valuable for spam or resale.
Clicking these links not only validates your email but may also trigger pixel trackers to expose additional personal data, such as your IP address (revealing your general location), device type, or browser details. This data can be used to create a profile of you, making you more vulnerable to targeted phishing or malware attacks.
To stay safe, avoid interacting with suspicious emails, enable spam filtering, and secure your inbox with two-factor authentication (2FA). Plus, you should avoid reusing the compromised password on other accounts.
Stay one step ahead of email scrapers with Proton Mail
Proton Mail is a secure email service that protects your email address and other personal information from email extractors and other malicious threats using end-to-end encryption, hide-my-email aliases, Dark Web Monitoring, and spam filtering enabled by default.
Furthermore, Proton Mail’s enhanced tracking protection prevents tracking pixels from collecting your data, while the link confirmation feature asks you to confirm before opening external links.
You can easily and securely migrate your emails, calendars, and contacts to Proton Mail with the Easy Switch feature.
Our mission is to build an internet where privacy is the default. Proton Mail is just part of an encrypted ecosystem for all your data, including email, passwords, internet connections(new window), cloud storage(new window), calendar, and digital assets.
