Often times Email Accounts aren't hacked, They are "spoofed".
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Email_spoofing One way to minimize that is to try to avoid having a text version of your email address online anywhere.
This will prevent and or eliminate spoofing that is generated by Web-bots searching the internet for the @ symbol or the word "at".
That will not prevent your email from having problems.
Another contributing factor is replying to or opening any kind of "unusual" email and especially responding to it. When you do, your email address becomes a valid target.
Here is a site that actually lists one of my old ones
http://www.email-format.com/d/weldinginspectionsvcs.com/ for a domain I am no longer in control of and an add
I would just be wary of posting my email address if I was concerned with security issues. I have multiple domains so whenever I want to post an email address online, I can make up a new email address, post it in that location only, and see what kind of junk comes to that address.
If you look at
http://www.email-format.com/d/spemail.org/ your old one isn't t here but that doesn't mean it isn't floating around somewhere else. If you scroll over the right side of the list, you will see options to validate addresses or mark them as bad. I think the only reason for this is for people to gather email addresses for spam and phishing mail.
Also notice at the top of the page the ability to download as a spreadsheet. A great way to bulk send messages.
Have a good day.
Gerald Austin
Len,
