ISNA--How to Dodge the Spam-Bots...

How to Dodge the Spam-Bots
Thanks to ASCII Equivalents & Javascript
Just Picture It - Scripted Lines - Or Even Easier - But Don't Hyperlink It

Ah, the joys of spam...

So you started a website, you posted your email address and within 6 months you're getting 30+ emails a day on how to grow a larger penis, find the dirtiest porn on the net, buy presciptions online, and my all-time favorite, stop recieving spam... those dirty bastards must roll from the irony of that one.

So how do they get your email address? Typically "spambots" crawl the internet much like a search engine does, except the only thing they are looking for is AnyAdress@AnyISP.anything. They harvest them by the tens of thousands from newsgroups, company directories, and most importantly, all over your website.

Just Picture It
A picture paints a thousand words... and stops a billion Viagra ads? Free Golf Wedge? Sir, I must contact you for confidential matter from Namibia? is an easy way to go. Code looks like this;

<img src="picture-email.gif" alt="this isn't a link, you'll have to type it in manually" align=middle>

Incidentally, for my example here, I used a *.gif file with a transparent background, so it actually looks like text. See how slick you can be?

Scripted Lines
Here it is, your unreadable, reasonably bot-proof, theoretically fully functional mailto link. Whadda ya think? It (hopefully) works because the email address is hidden within a Javascript, so the bots won't see it, they'll just slide right past it. In the code it looks like this;

<SCRIPT LANGUAGE="JavaScript">  </SCRIPT>

Even Easier
Go to Dynamic Drive and use their "email riddler". It's slightly more elaborate, so maybe that means it's better. What it does is instead of hiding your name in an easy code, it translate's it to it's ASCII equivalents first. Does that really help? I don't know. Also, the email riddler will enable you to have a custom subject line. That's gotta count for something, right?

But Don't Hyperlink It
An easy way to cut WAY back is by not posting an email address... But you want people to reach you, right? So how about posting your email address so humans can read it but spambots can't. Do not hyperlink your email address. Yes it's convenient that people can just click on it and have their email open up, but if they want to reach you, this will not slow them down. Next, use ASCII equivalents instead of spelling out your address.

What I have done is make it look like this, webmaster@glossynews. You'll notice you can't click it, and if you were to look in at the code (which is all a spambot does,) you'd see that it looks exactly like this;

<font color=blue><u>webmas ter@gloss ynews</u><font color=black>

It's a total mess, isn't it? Yep, that's what keeps the spambots away, I'm told... Incidentally, keep it all on a single line, of course. And here are some commonly used characters and their ASCII equivalents for your email address.

Char HEX ASCII Char HEX ASCII

A 41 A a 61 a

B 42 B b 62 b

C 43 C c 63 c

D 44 D d 64 d

E 45 E e 65 e

F 46 F f 66 f

G 47 G g 67 g

H 48 H h 68 h

I 49 I i 69 i

J 4A J j 6A j

K 4B K k 6B k

L 4C L l 6C l

M 4D M m 6D m

N 4E N n 6E n

O 4F O o 6F o

P 50 P p 70 p

Q 51 Q q 71 q

R 52 R r 72 r

S 53 S s 73 s

T 54 T t 74 t

U 55 U u 75 u

V 56 V v 76 v

W 57 W w 77 w

X 58 X x 78 x

Y 59 Y y 79 y

Z 5A Z z 7A z

0 30 0 @ 40 @

1 31 1 _ 5F _

2 32 2 - 96 

3 33 3 . 2E .

4 34 4 / 2F /

5 35 5
Enjoy what you read?

By clicking the picture

6 36 6

7 37 7

8 38 8

9 39 9

Want common characters that aren't on this list? This page has more.
Want characters that are both uncommon AND not on this list? Go here to see all 999 ASCII characters...

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