Beat the Robots That Harvest Email Addresses From Webpages

[MountainDon]

This is not exactly a home builder item, but I figure it may be very useful to some who don't read the Off Topic section. But then some who read the Off Topic area may not read here.  

This is directed at any of our members who manage or write web sites for themselves, their businesses or clubs and hobbies. A lot of email addresses are harvested from web pages by automated programs called robots or spiders. These are similar to the programs used by Google and other search engines to find and catalog web sites. These robots look at the text that appears to all when viewing the page as well as looking at the underlying code. Some of you may play around with subbing the word "at" for the "@" or the word "dot" for "."  However if you have a click here link set up that opens an email window the robots will read that underlying code and harvest the address.

I have used the following free service for 6 years, maybe longer,    on the websites I manage. You input the email address, what you want to appear on the screen, even what the subject line should state, click a button . The enkoder provides the code that you copy and paste into the html for the page.

http://danbenjamin.com/enkoder/form

My personal tests backup the claims of no spam email harvesting. I have two addresses I have never used for anything else on one of the index pages. One address is encoded with the enkoder, the other is not. The enkoded address has never received a hit of spam, while the other began receiving spam a few months after it was first published.

[MountainDon]

Glenn, delete this person, that makes no sense and a quick google on them brought up more posts like that on other forums.

[glenn kangiser]

Got em Don - long day today - just got in about 1/2 hr ago.  Back at it at 6 AM.

[John Raabe]

Glenn:

Thanks for the Encoder link. I'm going to give it a try.

[glenn kangiser]

Mtn Don provided that - I just made the bad guy disappear... 

[John Raabe]

Oops 

[John Raabe]

We've been getting some pill pushers on this forum. So far I've deleted and "dismembered" the same guy twice.

[Don_P]

I don't know how it is here but as far as I'm concerned you can pretty much cut the incoming cable from the APNIC net if that's how they're coming in, never seen a legit post from there on a forum I moderate. I did notice the IP on Peter's pill spammers was from the RIPE net though, you might have different problems. Sure wish there was a way to send a high voltage surge back up the line  .

[glenn kangiser]

They have been getting in once in a while lately.  I killed one about 2 minutes after he registered the other day.