Helping people with computers... one answer at a time.
Porn spam doesn't mean anyone did anything illicit. Spam simply is. Lack of spam doesn't imply you've been good, either.
Why does my sisters email get hit with xxx rated "chat ads"? mine doesn't ever...would you have had to visit a site of that type or signed up etc. to be getting those kind of ads?
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To the relief of those whose partners have asked (or accused) something along the same lines the answer is an unequivocal no.
Getting porn spam doesn't mean you've been visiting porn.
The reverse is also true: not getting porn spam doesn't imply you haven't
been out surfing porn either. 
They're unrelated, and I'll explain why. And I'll also explain how they can be.
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When you visit a web site - like Ask Leo! for example - you don't provide you email address to view what's on the site. You can view all the pages here and aside from an IP address, which tells me almost nothing, I have no idea who you are. I couldn't email you if I wanted to.
The same is true for porn, or any other web site for that matter. There's just no way for them to email you unless you somehow give them your email address.
Now of course ... you might. For example, you might sign up for my newsletter, and I'll send that to you once a week. I'm sure that the porn industry has similar products - newsletters, subscription sites, discussion forums - all of which might require that you provide an email address. And yes, once you give them your email address they will probably start sending you email.
In the worst case, they might also give your email address to someone else who'll start sending you email. (For the record, I do not.) And some or all of that might look like spam, including porn spam.
Porn and other shady industries on the web are also notorious for trying to infect your machine with viruses and malware that in turn could grab your email address from your email program - along with everyone in your contact list. That could land you on spammers lists.
But just surfing web sites - and doing so with appropriate anti-malware precautions and common sense - doesn't give them that information. If you haven't provided your information, they have no real way to know how to email you.
So why are you getting porn spam?
The same reason you're getting any spam: it happens. Most people get spam. Some more than others, but most all do.
At some point your email address made it onto a list of email addresses used by a spammer. That list may have been sold to another spammer, and sold to another, and another and another until your email address might be on several spammer's lists. Some of those might be drug spammers, some who send phishing attempts, and others who want to help you increase the size of certain body parts.
And of course some might be porn spammers.
But that's all unrelated to where you've been. It's more related to how visible your email address has been, and whether or not you've responded to (accidentally or otherwise) spam in the past by clicking on a link or replying. Once spammers realize that an email address is valid and reaches a real person, they prioritize sending spam in your direction.
So, no, if your spouse, child, partner, friend, employee or whomever starts getting porn spam it doesn't mean they did anything related to it.
It doesn't mean that they are surfing porn.
Just like the lack of spam doesn't mean they haven't been.
Article C4226 - March 20, 2010
Leo A. Notenboom has been playing with computers since he
was required to take a programming class in 1976. An 18 year career as a programmer at Microsoft soon followed.
After "retiring" in 2001, Leo started Ask Leo! in 2003 as a place for answers
to common computer and technical questions. More about Leo.
Beware of "generic" replies to ads posted on sites like CraigsList. Spammer generate "automated replies" to CraigsList ads to work around CraigsList "redirection" machanism. Then when YOU reply, they get your eMail address. (In this respect, systems like Kijiji.Com's, which have a graphic responders must decode to reply, are MUCH better.) By "generic replies" I mean those that SHOW the responder did not necessarily read your ad, such as those refering to "your item" and questions whose answer is part of the ad, such as "How can I contact you?" And there are plenty of TOTALLY USELESS ones like "Why are you selling so cheap?", "I want it", "I'll take it", etc.
Posted by: The Programmer at April 13, 2010 9:39 AMYou can also help the fight by REPORTING spam. Most major eMail services have addresses to do so, most notably Abuse@Aim.Com, TOSEmail1@AOL.Com, Report_Spam@HotMail.Com, report_spam@msn.com, network-abuse@cc.yahoo-inc.com.
That will catch lesser offenders, like those who respond to every ad for something with some std reply and their phone and wait for you to call THEM. The worst offenders do not use the above mentioned services and that is where SpamCop.Com kicks in. You paste the spam message WITH FULL HEADERS and SpamCop.Com figures out from where it came and to whom to report it. I know it works because SpamCop.Com shows you the address to where it will send the spam report and I see that the IPS's being used by specific offenders change over time. This means that the spammers are getting axed and they are moving on to another ISP.
This article is incorrect or outdated as until I delete a number of temp folder's files (after porn surfing), then delete browsing history and also perform a disc clean, I will assurededly get porn spam because those sites have means to get email addresses (and do so w-o permission).
05-Jun-2010
Posted by: wgutu at June 4, 2010 1:59 PM
Okay, but what if I find an email sent to my husband from a peticular porn site that says he's been on the site and that it looks like he is interested in becoming a member. They even had his first and last names and offered him a monthly subscription. Does this mean he's been surfing porn? Or could it be that he's visited a site, given his name and email address, and they got ahold of it?
22-Jul-2010
Posted by: Sally at July 20, 2010 3:02 PM
My boyfriend use to watch porn, we have had several discussions on how I dont care for it, he agreed that he would not do that any more, that was over a year ago, but it still gets sent to his email. Is there a way we can stop it? Or try?
04-Oct-2011
Posted by: Jenny at October 4, 2011 9:10 AM
I have responded to Craigslist personals a few years ago, but will receive random responses from time to time. How can I get this to stop, I can't find any help on CL site itself.
Posted by: help at October 13, 2011 7:36 AM