And there is no protection from them. All you can really do is report them. Most ISP's provide detailed instructions on how to report spammers. Usually they advise you to not reply to the Spammer. Instead they suggest you forward the offending email message to a specific person in their organization then delete it from your system.
Hoaxes are another common way spammers obtain large numbers of email addresses.
They can pickup huge numbers of good entries especially if the story is based on sympathy or hard times. And thousands of people fall for it every time. But not every story is started by spammers. Some are initiated by youngsters who just want to see how much they can get away with. Others may be born out of genuine events and might actually be true.