Hide Your Email Address From 'SPAMBOTS'

Spam Email is the fly in the ointment when it comes to electronic mail. Until recently, I was getting over 200 spam emails each day, so thought it was time to do something about it. The problem was, my wife and I both had email addresses within our HTML, ie: Chris@BuzzOffYouDirtySpamBot.co.uk This is a dummy address, it doesn't exist (or at least it didn't when I wrote this!), but it will still get 'ripped' out by the Spambots and stored in a database somewhere for future use.

 

When a Spambot visits your web page(s), it will carry out a search for a HTML Anchor containing 'href="mailto:', and if found will then copy the email address which follows it, and that's it, the damage is done. As far as I know, a Spambot will not stick around and process any Javascript within your HTML, so using a Javascript to hide your email address should greatly reduce the amount of spam you receive. Try to AVOID using email addresses which begin with admin@, sales@, info@ and enquiries@ as these will be spammed regardless. You should also AVOID writing your email address in a sentence to be displayed on screen, ie: 'Please email me at Chris@BuzzOffYouDirtySpamBot.co.uk', as the Spambots might also find email addresses by searching for the @ sign within your HTML.

 

But does it work ?

Well, all I know is my email spam has been dramatically reduced over the last few months. My email addresses are already in the spam network, so I can't do anything about that, but using Javascript to hide my email addresses should certainly reduce the amount of spam that they might otherwise attract.

 

Please use the form below to create your Javascript email link.
The Email Subject is optional, but the Email Address & Text Link are required.
The Text Link is the text the user will click on to open their email client ready to email you.
Your Javascript will appear below the form after you hit the Create Javascript Button.