Re: [Mimedefang] Obscuring email addresses on the web
--- On Thu, 8/6/09, wbr...@e1b.org wbr...@e1b.org wrote: A colleague quoted in an email email spam from web crawlers is a problem for you and your IT department, obfuscating email addresses on your website turns your problem into a problem for your users. Has anyone seen this or something similar? Yes. I have several spam-trap addresses in my web pages and they do seem to get hit often enough that I leave them there. I use my own PHP-driven script forms for messages that I want to receive via a web site. However, even this has been hit by spam (only 5 times). Users can specify only a message subject and content. The to address is hard coded into the script - no variable (unlike some popular frommail scripts). ___ NOTE: If there is a disclaimer or other legal boilerplate in the above message, it is NULL AND VOID. You may ignore it. Visit http://www.mimedefang.org and http://www.roaringpenguin.com MIMEDefang mailing list MIMEDefang@lists.roaringpenguin.com http://lists.roaringpenguin.com/mailman/listinfo/mimedefang
Re: [Mimedefang] Obscuring email addresses on the web
- wrote: --- On Thu, 8/6/09, wbr...@e1b.org wbr...@e1b.org wrote: A colleague quoted in an email email spam from web crawlers is a problem for you and your IT department, obfuscating email addresses on your website turns your problem into a problem for your users. Has anyone seen this or something similar? Yes. I have several spam-trap addresses in my web pages and they do seem to get hit often enough that I leave them there. I use my own PHP-driven script forms for messages that I want to receive via a web site. However, even this has been hit by spam (only 5 times). Users can specify only a message subject and content. The to address is hard coded into the script - no variable (unlike some popular frommail scripts). There's also this which makes life a little harder on spammers... http://www.spampoison.com/ Put the link on your website and they get endless pages of bogus email addy's -- a lot at domains of known spammers. Fun! -Ben -- Ben Kamen - O.D.T., S.P. = Email: bkamen AT benjammin DOT net Web: http://www.benjammin.net As seen somewhere on the net: My other computer is your Windows Server. ___ NOTE: If there is a disclaimer or other legal boilerplate in the above message, it is NULL AND VOID. You may ignore it. Visit http://www.mimedefang.org and http://www.roaringpenguin.com MIMEDefang mailing list MIMEDefang@lists.roaringpenguin.com http://lists.roaringpenguin.com/mailman/listinfo/mimedefang
Re: [Mimedefang] Obscuring email addresses on the web
wbr...@e1b.org wrote: A colleague quoted in an email email spam from web crawlers is a problem for you and your IT department, obfuscating email addresses on your website turns your problem into a problem for your users. ... I was told he found this twaddle on the web. Anyone know where this quote might have come from? No idea where it's from, but it's a valid point. Fundamentally, obfuscating email addresses is about making potential contacts jump through hoops, and assuming that valid contacts will be more motivated (or at least have better software) than spammers. Sure, you can mitigate it by using JavaScript to generate a link in the browser. But you'll still run into the occasional person who surfs with JavaScript disabled, or who is trying to find your contact info from a mobile phone with minimal or no scripting support -- and they'll have to manually type in your address, then go over it to check for typos. Not to say you shouldn't do it, of course -- some sort of obfuscation is practically a necessity these days -- but it *is* a trade-off that can impact usability. -- Kelson Vibber SpeedGate Communications www.speed.net ___ NOTE: If there is a disclaimer or other legal boilerplate in the above message, it is NULL AND VOID. You may ignore it. Visit http://www.mimedefang.org and http://www.roaringpenguin.com MIMEDefang mailing list MIMEDefang@lists.roaringpenguin.com http://lists.roaringpenguin.com/mailman/listinfo/mimedefang
Re: [Mimedefang] Obscuring email addresses on the web
Kelson wrote: wbr...@e1b.org wrote: A colleague quoted in an email email spam from web crawlers is a problem for you and your IT department, obfuscating email addresses on your website turns your problem into a problem for your users. ... I was told he found this twaddle on the web. Anyone know where this quote might have come from? No idea where it's from, but it's a valid point. Fundamentally, obfuscating email addresses is about making potential contacts jump through hoops, and assuming that valid contacts will be more motivated (or at least have better software) than spammers. Sure, you can mitigate it by using JavaScript to generate a link in the browser. But you'll still run into the occasional person who surfs with JavaScript disabled, or who is trying to find your contact info from a mobile phone with minimal or no scripting support -- and they'll have to manually type in your address, then go over it to check for typos. Not to say you shouldn't do it, of course -- some sort of obfuscation is practically a necessity these days -- but it *is* a trade-off that can impact usability. Oops! I saw the quote and it make me think of the spam-poison. I would have to agree with Kelson. You're damned if you -- and damned if you don't. I get tons of spam FORWARDED by my employer to me.. (it's like they filter spam destined for work addresses, but do nothing about forwarded addresses). Coupled with the fact that their directory listing is so easy to crawl.. I'm screwed. -Ben -- Ben Kamen - O.D.T., S.P. = Email: bkamen AT benjammin DOT net Web: http://www.benjammin.net As seen somewhere on the net: My other computer is your Windows Server. ___ NOTE: If there is a disclaimer or other legal boilerplate in the above message, it is NULL AND VOID. You may ignore it. Visit http://www.mimedefang.org and http://www.roaringpenguin.com MIMEDefang mailing list MIMEDefang@lists.roaringpenguin.com http://lists.roaringpenguin.com/mailman/listinfo/mimedefang
