New domain/website receiving spam

How can this be

[vivalasvegas]

I registered a new domain name a year ago and only managed to build the website and put it online last month. Today I accessed my main email account for this domain and I was very surprised (unpleasantly) to find 134 spam messages in my inbox. They're all addressed to different names @mynewdomain.com . Of course none of these email accounts exist. In fact I haven't yet set up an email account. I used the Alexa Archive site to see if the domain was registered before and it wasn't according to this tool. I don't understand why I'm getting this spam. Can spam spiders actually collect newly registered domain names even when they're not online yet?

Thanks for any suggestions.
Dan

[Dijkgraaf]

When you register a domain then there will be at least a WHOIS entry created, so yes, they can find new domains and try a dictionary spam attack on that domain.

By the fact that you actually received mail to the domain, then it also had a DNS entry including a MX entry and also a default catch-all mailbox, so your domain was online, maybe you hadn't created a web site for it, but that doesn't matter.

[vivalasvegas]

Thanks. This is so unusual though. I don't get this amount of spam for websites I've had online for years.

[robho]

I don't get this amount of spam for websites I've had online for years.

The spammers get lists of newly-registered domains each day, then start sending email to common names at them (info@, etc). I get this for just about every domain I register.

Some older domains will have been created before they started using the daily new domain lists, so relativly spam free (providing you never put an email address online anywhere).

[vivalasvegas]

That explains it, thanks.