Fight Spam

Brute Searching Force

Spammers discover email addresses by brute force, and they employ tactics similar to those used by Web search engines.

In fact, they use search engines as a starting point. When you are looking for something (an email address, for example), where do you start? Chances are you begin your query with your favourite search engine or directory.

So do spammers. They take a starting point (like the home page of the Open Directory Project) and search the page's HTML source code for email addresses. Strings with '@' somewhere in the middle and a top-level domain at the end are all they are interested in.

There are not too many email addresses on a single page. The ODP home page contains not a single one. But it has something else to offer: links. Links take you to other pages, and with ever page comes a new chance of discovering email addresses. So the spammer follows every single link on the ODP home page. On the pages that come up, they first look for email addresses and then for links. They follow these links, search for email addresses and so on. You get the idea.

Following links is exactly what the spiders of search engines do. Except they do not extract email addresses. Like those who run a search engine, spammers do not follow links and look for email addresses manually. They employ their own software bots, or spiders. These tools for extracting email addresses from Web sites are called "address collectors" or "address extractors".

If you put your email address on a web page in plain text like: john@smith.net, or even worse, as a "mailto" link like: Mail John , the address will be used by automated spam generators.

Spammers use programs that search the web & identify any text of the form abcd@efgh.xyz. They also look for mailto links. They collect the addresses from web pages, & use them to send annoying messages about cheap Viagra, free porn, get rich quick schemes, etc.

To avoid being swamped by hundreds of junk messages a day, always display email addresses in a non copy able form. You can do this by making a graphic image of all or part of the address. This will look like a normal address to humans reading the page, but will not look like an address to the "spam bots" searching it.

In the address below, the @ has been replaced by a graphic or picture of an @. If you try to copy and paste the address as text, it will not work. A machine will not see this as an address. However, a human can type it in manually & it will work.
tickiecogeco.ca

Some people feel that the extra step needed to use the above way is not worth the effort & will opt to not email you at all.  So, for those people I have been using the javascript method.  This allows your visitor to simply click on the email address link & it will open their email program as usual, no editing involved.  This still uses the "mailto" function but does not have the @ symbol in the address.  The address is broken up, the @ symbol removed & the script must be run to work.  See the example of the source code below:
javascript:mailto('tickie.net','tickie');

There are many ways to include your email address on your site without becoming a spam target.  You just need to find a method that works for you.