Hiding email address from spambots

[Ian James]

I would like to hide email addresses on my new web site from spambots and I
need to find solutions. I already converted text of email addressees into
graphics on the web site. Is there another solution to visually display
email addresses on the web and prevent robots from collecting it?

Also I wonder how I should treat the mailto: command. There is an email
encoder on http://www.ohlone.edu/org/webcenter/emailencoder.html, but with
standard solutions, we can expect a standard crack to appear pretty soon
after this. I thought of putting separate string variables into a PHP
program, and rebuild the string with something like:

mailto:<?=$to?><?=$domain?>

(where $to contains the user name and $domain contains the domain name with
the '@'. but when doing this, when I view the sources in the browser, I see
the actual email address.

I also use in other situations forms. But I can't always used forms and I
need to allow users to send me emails through their mail program.

Any suggestion?

Ian

 

[cosmic fool]

how about turning it into sound?
or some script that assembles it
from something otherwise unrecognizable
and displays it in a message box when
the user clicks a button?
ya, that might work.

 

[Evertjan.]

Ian James wrote on 06 jun 2005 in comp.lang.javascript:

I would like to hide email addresses on my new web site from spambots
and I need to find solutions. I already converted text of email
addressees into graphics on the web site. Is there another solution
to visually display email addresses on the web and prevent robots from
collecting it?

Also I wonder how I should treat the mailto: command. There is an
email encoder on
http://www.ohlone.edu/org/webcenter/emailencoder.html, but with
standard solutions, we can expect a standard crack to appear pretty
soon after this. I thought of putting separate string variables into
a PHP program, and rebuild the string with something like:

mailto:<?=$to?><?=$domain?>

(where $to contains the user name and $domain contains the domain name
with the '@'. but when doing this, when I view the sources in the
browser, I see the actual email address.

This is serverside [php?] end probably will be rendered normal on
clientside and on your "spambot"

Please confine yourself to javascript on this NG.

 

[Lou van Wijhe]

I would like to hide email addresses on my new web site from spambots and I
need to find solutions. I already converted text of email addressees into
graphics on the web site. Is there another solution to visually display
email addresses on the web and prevent robots from collecting it?

Ian,

Would http://www.wbwip.com/wbw/emailencoder.html be useful?

 

[BootNic]

I would like to hide email addresses on my new web site from spambots
and I need to find solutions. I already converted text of email
addressees into graphics on the web site. Is there another solution
to visually display email addresses on the web and prevent robots
from collecting it?

Any suggestion?

<script type="text/javascript">
function DeadLink(href){

y = href.lastIndexOf('/')+1;
z= href.length;
href = href.substring(y,z);
var a = ''

for (i = 0 ; i < (href.length ); i++) {
var k = href.charCodeAt(i);

if (k >= 32 && k <= 63) {
k = k + 128;
}

else if (k >= 160 && k <= 191) {
k = k - 128;
}

else if (k >= 64 && k <= 95) {
k = k + 128;
}

else if (k >= 192 && k <= 223) {
k = k - 128;
}

else if (k >= 96 && k <= 127) {
k = k + 128;
}

else if (k >= 224 && k <= 255) {
k = k - 128;
}
a +=String.fromCharCode(k);
}
document.location.href = a;
}
</script>
<a href=
"javascripteadLink('íáéìôïºÓïíåÏîå¼óïíåïîåÀáïì®îåô¾¿óõâêåãô½èåììï ôèåòå ÓïíåÏîå¡')">
<img src="blank.gif" alt="Email me" border="0"></a><br>
<button onclick=
"javascripteadLink('íáéìôïºÓïíåÏîå¼óïíåïîåÀáïì®îåô¾¿óõâêåãô½èåììï ôèåòå ÓïíåÏîå¡')">
Email me</button>


--
BootNic Tuesday, June 07, 2005 12:39 AM

All my humor is based upon destruction and despair. If the whole world was tranquil, without disease
and violence, I'd be standing on the breadline right in back of J. Edgar Hoover.
*Lenny Bruce US comedian, satirist, author*

 

[VK]

You can use my style obfuscator:

<html>
<head>
<title>(c)</title>
<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html;
charset=iso-8859-1">
<style type="text/css">
<!--
span { background-color: #FFFFFF; width: 10px; height: auto}
div { font: 12pt "Courier New", Courier, mono}
-->
</style></head>

<body bgcolor="#FFFFFF">

<div>
<span style="position:absolute; left: 110px; top: 50px">c</span>
<span style="position:absolute; left: 220px; top: 50px">@</span>
<span style="position:absolute; left: 120px; top: 50px">h</span>
<span style="position:absolute; left: 150px; top: 50px">l</span>
<span style="position:absolute; left: 130px; top: 50px">o</span>
<span style="position:absolute; left: 140px; top: 50px">o</span>
<span style="position:absolute; left: 160px; top: 50px">s</span>
<span style="position:absolute; left: 170px; top: 50px">-</span>
<span style="position:absolute; left: 210px; top: 50px">g</span>
<span style="position:absolute; left: 190px; top: 50px">i</span>
<span style="position:absolute; left: 200px; top: 50px">n</span>
<span style="position:absolute; left: 180px; top: 50px">r</span>
<span style="position:absolute; left: 100px; top: 50px">s</span>
<span style="position:absolute; left: 230px; top: 50px">y</span>
<span style="position:absolute; left: 250px; top: 50px">h</span>
<span style="position:absolute; left: 240px; top: 50px">a</span>
<span style="position:absolute; left: 260px; top: 50px">o</span>
<span style="position:absolute; left: 270px; top: 50px">o</span>
<span style="position:absolute; left: 290px; top: 50px">c</span>
<span style="position:absolute; left: 280px; top: 50px">.</span>
<span style="position:absolute; left: 300px; top: 50px">o</span>
<span style="position:absolute; left: 310px; top: 50px">m</span>
</div>
</body>
</html>

 

[RobG]

You can use my style obfuscator:

<html>
<head>
<title>(c)</title>
<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html;
charset=iso-8859-1">
<style type="text/css">
<!--
span { background-color: #FFFFFF; width: 10px; height: auto}
div { font: 12pt "Courier New", Courier, mono}
-->
</style></head>

<body bgcolor="#FFFFFF">

<div>
<span style="position:absolute; left: 110px; top: 50px">c</span>
<span style="position:absolute; left: 220px; top: 50px">@</span> [...]
<span style="position:absolute; left: 310px; top: 50px">m</span>
</div>
</body>
</html>

That also makes it very difficult in some browsers and impossible in
others to copy and paste the address, forcing visitors to type it
manually.

Does anyone have any statistics or opinions on whether obfuscating an
e-mail address on a web page has any effect at all on spam?

ISTM that it has zero practical benefit and only manages to annoy
visitors that want to contact you via e-mail. Therefore the costs
definitely outweigh the benefits.

 

[Thomas 'PointedEars' Lahn]

how about turning it into sound?
or some script that assembles it
from something otherwise unrecognizable
and displays it in a message box when
the user clicks a button?
ya, that might work.

Nonsense. There are people speaking different languages. There are deaf
people, there are blind people. And some people appear to be deaf, blind
and dumb, not considering what has already been explained before they
post(ed).


PointedEars

 

[Thomas 'PointedEars' Lahn]

You can use my style obfuscator:
[...]

This (Invalid) HTML is easily tag- and newline-stripped
by a spambot and thus provides no precaution whatsoever
(because there is simply none besides server-side proc).

When will they ever learn?


PointedEars