Using the WhoIs information to spam people is restricted.

Then how do some "Whois Email Collecting softwares" manage to get
email addresses of website owners from WhoIs servers?? (Even when
Mass-quering of WhoIs is restricted ESPECIALLY if the quering is being
done to collect email addresses). Then how do such bad softwares
manage to collect the email address of website owners?

I am creating a report on how such bad spamming companies manage to
get our email addresses. So need to find out first that how do What do
these bad guys actually do to get access to the WhoIs Database? (an
exact procedure)

Any questions? Feel free to ask me :-)

Thanks,
Tushar :-)

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Request for Question Clarification by pafalafa-ga on 17 Aug 2004 09:16 PDT

Most whois systems that I'm aware of have switched to images of email
addresses rather than text versions.  The idea is that humans can read
the images, but the images can't be read by text-based harvesting
software.

As far as I know, there isn't any "email collecting software" that can
readily read the images.  Is this what you're inquiring about?

I wonder if the answer to the question would provide information on
how to perform an illegal activity...

Hi crythias,

Yep, You said it. People searching google answers can get access to
this information. So a solution to this could be that you can send me
the answer CONFIDENTIALLY (i.e. maybe email me the answer to my email
address or come on some messenger like MSN or Yahoo to describe it to
me).

And Of course as i mentioned that i need this information to create a
Special Report (for my School Project), so i would not be misusing it.
Moreover, I don't know to developing softwares, so can't use this
information Anywhere except writing the exact steps in my report. :-)

By the way, How did you came to know about the answer?? Have you
already developed such software before ?? :-)

Okay, I was just kiddin :)...Let me know how these bad boys access whois.

Thankyou
Regards,
Tushar

However, merely using the whois program in *nix or *BSD can bring that information.