Question

Topic: E-Marketing

How To Prevent Your Email Address On Web Site From Being Harvested By Spammers

Posted by Peter (henna gaijin) on 6/29/2004 at 6:37 PM ET 250 Points
One way which spammers get email addresses is by harvesting off of web sites. I've noticed this, because some web sites I work with receive spam messages. These addresses (such as info@...) are not used anywhere except on the web site.

I know one solution would be to use a form instead of an email address, but I'd prefer not to do that as it doesn't seem customer friendly for those who we want to contact us. I am hoping that others know more about this and know of tricks that can help limit the spammers from harvesting the addresses?
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  • Posted by Blaine Wilkerson on 6/29/2004 at 6:56 PM Accepted
    Well there is a way to use a form-type contact page that simulates an email appearance. Marketingprofs uses something very similar to what I am talking about; just click on the "Moderator Help" link to your right to see what I mean.

    You can still make it personal allthewhile protecting the email address from harvesters. The addresses have to be cleverley hidden or they can just grab it from the source code/script.

    Asl Val to contact Allen about the types of program they use. Otherwise, I can look some up for you.

    I hope this helps.



  • Posted by Blaine Wilkerson on 6/29/2004 at 7:20 PM Accepted
    Here is another example:

    https://www.my-middlesex.co.uk/html/mx_ready_form.htm

    Are you saying you do not like these kind of forms?
  • Posted by Pepper Blue on 6/29/2004 at 7:39 PM Accepted
    Peter,

    What you want to do is put an email link on your website, but you don't want to risk exposing yourself to spambots harvesting it right?

    Great question.

    Make sure that your email address link works for humans but not for spambots! That's what this tool does. It is called Email Obfuscator, it obfuscates your email address and it works great.

    https://www.alicorna.com//cgi/obfuscator.cgi

    I hope that helps!

  • Posted by Peter (henna gaijin) on 6/29/2004 at 7:42 PM Author
    That is correct - I don't like forms. Or to be more specific, I don't trust forms when I am contacting companies.

    Maybe it is me personally and doesn't translate over to the general population, but if I want to contact someone, I'd prefer to see an email address than fill in a form. An email gives me more the feeling that it is a message being sent to a person (though it may not be), where a form gives me the feeling of something which will be processed by a machine and maybe my info being captured by that company for marketing purposes which I won't like (how's that for something to say on this site!).
  • Posted by Peter (henna gaijin) on 6/29/2004 at 8:04 PM Author
    PB - looks like exactly what I was hoping for, if it works. Know of anyone who has used it?

    I will set up a new account on one of the web sites I work with just to test this and see if it starts getting spam (hopefully not).
  • Posted by Peter (henna gaijin) on 6/30/2004 at 2:03 PM Author
    I would be interested in hearing more specifics related to embedding an email behind a link and using javascript.
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