Disappointed

I looked through my server logs, and I didn't notice an increase in spam load after reserving a room at the Westin. Considering how large of a company they are, I can pretty much guarantee that they had nothing to do with it, and if they did, it was accidental.

I'm not sure who your host is, but if it's a well-known email provider (Yahoo, Hotmail, Gmail) or ISP (AOL, Comcast, Verizon), the initial spammer probe may have simply been stepping through a sequential list of usernames, looking for active ones. You then open a spam message, or somehow access its contents, and voila, you're now a target.

If you run your own domain, the source could be a script stepping through a list of common usernames looking for a response, since in those cases it isn't worth the spammer's time to go through a purely random sequence.

Another potential culprit could be Myspace (I see from your profile here that you have an account there). It's a prime target for malicious users, and it wouldn't suprise me if the management there sold email addresses themselves.

There are a million ways for your email address to make it on spam lists, but giving your address to a large, high-end hotel chain isn't one of them. Blaming it on the Westin company is a pretty unfounded claim.

I too had not noticed an increase in my spam load after making reservations at the Westin.

As Softpaw mentioned, there are a number of other explanations, such as viewing and image or clicking on a link in a past spam (which basically tells spammers that yes, your email goes to a real person and is therefore "good"), to "dictionary attacks" in which a spammer guesses usernames.

I can tell you that I personally have registered what I thought were obscure usernames on Hotmail in years past, only to find them receiving spam within a matter of days.