Hiding Email Addresses on Website

[Ju]

I'm sure that this has been mentioned before, but could someone please tell me how a contact e-mail address on a website can be "disguised" from the automatic setups that mail junk?

Thanks.

[Hells Bells]

I use a contact form, and don't put the email address on the site. Not sure if that's what you mean or not.

[marcus]

Check out

http://joemaller.com/js-mailer.shtml

which has a couple of ways of 'hiding' email addresses

[vrooje]

Ju,

We do essentially what the site Marcus linked to does. In place of a plain link tag, we use:

Code: Select all

<script language=javascript>
  <!--
  var mailsemur = "info"
  var mailHostsemur = "experienceburgundy.com"
  document.write&#40;"<A HREF=" + "mail" + "to&#58;" + mailsemur + "@" + mailHostsemur + ">" + mailsemur + "@" + mailHostsemur + "</A>"&#41;
  //-->
</script>

The result is the same on the actual webpage, but automated bots can't read the e-mail address.

I even got paranoid and changed the variable names (they used to be mail and mailHost, and I added "semur" to each of them) so that very clever bots which would normally recognize this snippet of free code would not be able to recognize mine.

Our e-mail has been on every page of our site for years now, and I essentially don't get spam (maybe one message every other month, if that).

[Normandy Cow]

I wish I'd done this a long time ago - I get so much spam nowadays (25 items today ).

I suppose that even if I do change my website to use the above code, it won't make any difference to spammers who have already got my email address, will it?

Does anyone have any suggestions for retrospectively getting rid of spammers who have already found my email address?

[Highams Park Harry]

can't really be done once they have the address, decent antispam will help minimise it

suggest that if it's your enquiries adress that you change it to something else and update the various places it appears, the paid for sites should protect it and you can use some cloaking on your site, I use the js one given above and it works

You can let it show your email but put a space either side of the @, that way it's instantly recognisable as an email address but is no use to spambots, clicking on it loads up the actual email adress

these's also the odd person that won't be running javascript and that gives tham a chance

a nice form is good as it prompts them for data in a way that an email link cannot

[vrooje]

I agree, there's nothing to be done if you already receive lots of spam -- except change your e-mail address. You can still change it to something professional, like booking@ instead of info@, and you could have your old e-mail forwarded to a free account like gmail or yahoo (or just set up a different inbox for it and use a spam filter), and still check it occasionally.

I'm not so sure about just using a space around the @ sign. It's my understanding that the bots don't look at the text on the website, or rather, it's secondary to the source code. And in order to have a direct e-mail link that doesn't use javascript, you have to use the right address in your "mailto:" code. So you could have the text showing on your website as "E-mail us here" or "No, this isn't an e-mail link", and bots will still get your e-mail if you've used an <A HREF=mailto: etc....> tag, without the intervening javascript.

It's also not inconceivable that there are smart bots out there that can see right through an address written like 'here @ spamme.com', truncate the spaces, and find your e-mail. That's a simple matter of an if statement in a bit of code.

For people who have javascript disabled, an inquiry form will still let them send you mail.

[la vache!]

a nice form is good as it prompts them for data in a way that an email link cannot

I have an enquiry form that was fine for about a year, but has now been infiltrated by the spammers and I get about 30 spam enquiries a day now from it, so I'm thinking of taking it out. In total I get at least 50 spam mails, some to my wanadoo address, some through the form. I wish there was something I could do about the form!

[vrooje]

Susan,

Does your web host support php or asp or another scripting language?

Using something like that, it's a snap to have a form that e-mails you whilst hiding your e-mail address from everyone.

[la vache!]

Brooke, I'm sure they do - I will find out, thanks!

[vrooje]

Susan,

If they do support PHP, PM me, and I will send you my php code for e-mailing. Mine is specific to my inquiry form and also sends an e-mail to my cell phone when I get an inquiry, yet both e-mail addresses are totally hidden.

[la vache!]

Brooke,
they do support php. It would be great if you could send me the php code, but be prepared I am still quite a novice and may need to ask other questions!

[vrooje]

You've been PMed!

If there's enough interest in this, I can also post the code here. What I sent to you, Susan, is a slightly simplified version, so it doesn't send a message to a second address, and it also doesn't include any of my HTML formatting, since I assumed you'd want to add your own instead.

[killie]

I've used a htaccess file in each directory, it does'nt use up much space but it block lots of referrer spam and saves bandwidth.
I can't remember where I got it but it was free, unforunately it's about 300 lines long and too large to post in a forum. Anyone wanting to try it is welcome, I'll put a copy in a folder on another webspace I have access to.
As I come across new spam I just add it to the list.

[Leo]

I would be grateful if you could PM me the code. I am now getting 25 spam messages a day and its definitely time for action. Thanks.