Which company has leaked my email address?

We all experience it once in a while. One more often than the other. The digital advertising brochures which is also called spam. Unfortunately, there is little you can do about it and it is difficult to find out how they got your email address.

Usually you left your email address after placing an order on a site or (accidentally) signed up for a newsletter. After a while the trouble starts. You receive unwanted emails all the time. But how did they get your email address? You can send a reply asking how they got your e-mail address and whether they want to stop sending mail, but this usually only results in more unwanted e-mails.

How do these companies get my email address?

There is a huge trade in email addresses. Various parties are interested in it. Both for advertising purposes, phishing, fraud, et cetera.
As mentioned above, you leave your e-mail address and possibly other personal information with various companies in order to register, for example. These companies don't have bad intentions so much by selling your private data, but your data could be exposed as a result of a data breach. Hackers love this kind of data. Both to resell and to scam you. But there are also plenty of sites where you can win something by leaving data. The more information you leave behind, the more they know about you. Such as age, gender, interests, et cetera. All you need to do is agree to the terms and conditions (which state that they can use your information for email marketing) and you're ready to receive junk mail.

How do I know through which company my data comes?

You can now apply for your own domain name for a small amount per month via neostrada, my.host or Yourhosting. Choose a hosting package that meets your needs and you will have your own domain name within minutes. You can often create multiple email addresses here. So every family member has their own e-mail address. And you can also create your own site. In short, it has many advantages.

Suppose your name is Jan and you have registered www.devries.nl as a domain name. You have chosen jan@deries.nl for your e-mail address. In addition to e-mail addresses, you can register (unlimited) e-mail aliases yourself. This is an e-mail address without a mailbox. The email will be forwarded to another email address. You can compare it to a shortcut on your desktop.

If Jan now has to register on the site of companyXYZ.nl, Jan simply creates the alias companyXYZ@devries.nl which is forwarded to his own e-mail address. If he creates an account with Bol.com, his alias will be bol@devries.nl. In short, each account gets its own email alias.
Suppose the database of companyXYZ with customer data has been sold through a data breach. This email address is only known by this company. As soon as Jan receives spam to the e-mail address companyXYZ@devries.nl, Jan knows exactly through which company his data has been leaked.

Has my email address or password been leaked?

Do you suspect or do you want to check whether your e-mail address and/or password has been leaked, you can check this easily and reliably https://haveibeenpwned.com.