Hiding Your Email Address From Spambots

Spam Email is the fly in the ointment when it comes to electronic mail. If you wish to reduce the likelyhood of receiving large amounts of spam email in the future, then you should start by making sure that you hide your email address when entering it on a web page. Websites often contain contact information, such as a link to automatically open the users email client with the 'To' & 'Subject' already filled in, for example, "Please email a@bb.co.uk if you require further assistance", which is created with HTML: "Please email <a href="mailto:a@bb.co.uk?Subject=Test Message">a@bb.co.uk</a> if you require further assistance".

 

The problem with this is that 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. You should also try to AVOID using email addresses which begin with words like admin@, sales@, info@ and enquiries@ as these are likely to receive spam email after the domain name has been indexed, simply because they are standard email addresses, and will be automatically selected by spammers. You should also AVOID writing your email address in a sentence to be displayed on screen, (as I have done above with a@bb.co.uk) as the Spambots might also find email addresses by searching for the '@' sign within your HTML. Try substituting the '@' sign with '(at)' or something similar.

 

But does it work ? - Well, all I know is my 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 EMAIL LINK Button.
You will also find some very simple instructions, and a HTML example of it's use.
We will NOT store any email address, or other text entered in this form.