Spam

[Guest]

I want to keep my e-mail address on My Webpage but am currently being spammed constantly. I know there is a way of encrypting your e-mail using javascript but can't remember where I saw it - could anyone help?

[John Simkin]

I have found that the email address on my website is now unusuable because of SPAM. I just delete all emails that enters that account. I now use my website to direct people to the Forum. Once they identify themselves I give them my real email address. So far this has worked very well.

http://educationforum.ipbhost.com/index.php?showtopic=829

[Graham Davies]

My business email address was spammed out of existence in July last year. It normally received an average of 50 spams per day but this figure rose to 1000-plus per day when a spammer spoofed the address as its return address, so that we received all the bounces and irate emails from recipients of the spam. I therefore set up a new address, which is munged in a contact form offsite. My business address no longer appears at my website. Initial contact with my business by email can only be made via the contact form. Have a look at WillMaster's page for advice:

http://willmaster.com/possibilities/archiv...020625001.shtml

Since I set up my new address the spam I receive has been reduced to no more than five per day on average. In addition, I filter emails using MailWasher, which I have found to be very effective:

MailWasher: http://www.mailwasher.net and http://www.firetrust.com

I had to take similar evasive action at the ICT4LT site (http://www.ict4lt.org). Emails can only be send to the ICT4LT team via a contact form. I had to remove a bulletin board at the site because it was invaded by emails emanating from credit card fraudsters. You can view the ICT4LT contact form at:

http://www.ict4lt.org/en/en_feedback.htm

I now receive almost no spam via the ICT4LT site.

Note: "Munge" (vb) = Mangle Until No Good.

[Guest]

My business email address was spammed out of existence in July last year. It normally received an average of 50 spams per day but this figure rose to 1000-plus per day when a spammer spoofed the address as its return address, so that we received all the bounces and irate emails from recipients of the spam.

This is precisely what has happened to me over the last few days - I'll try the feedback form route I think

[John Simkin]

I think what happens is that our email appears on the CDROMs for mass marketing companies. Once this happens your email becomes next to useless.

[Graham Davies]

A contact form, with the email address munged (e.g. converted to the ASCII numbers), is quite effective at keeping spam at bay. The address can, however, still be detected by determined spam robots, but most robots just look for the @ symbol or take a chance by hitting info@ followed by a domain name. The WillMaster URL I gave earlier suggests different ways of hiding your email address from the robots.

The amount of spam you receive also depends on action taken by your ISP to stop it before it hits you personally. I use three different ISPs: CompuServe, Force9 and Netalia. CompuServe and Force9 appear to stop a lot of spam en block, but Netalia lets almost everything through. Consequently, I have now shut down my Netalia address - actually it's still there but the mailbox limit is set to zero so everything bounces back automatically. My Netalia address is the one that the spammers wrecked.

Recent legislation introduced in the EU and the USA has proved to be pretty ineffective in stopping spam. It's like dealing with the Hydra.

We now have a situation where publicising your email address is bad for business rather than good for business.

[Doug Belshaw]

I get lots of spam on my DAJBelshaw.co.uk account, even though I'm very careful about who I make my email address available to. My MrBelshaw.co.uk receives virtually no spam, for some reason, and I've never had any spam on my GMail account!

I use my GMail account for pupil and parental contact, as all email conversations are automatically saved and can be accessed from anywhere. I advertise my GMail address on my website through the use of an email scrambler, which you can download here.

Works well for me...

Doug

[Graham Davies]

Doug writes:

I get lots of spam on my DAJBelshaw.co.uk account, even though I'm very careful about who I make my email address available to.

Spammers target accounts ending in .co.uk because this suggests that the account holder is a UK business. Under UK legislation and US legislation (the CAN-SPAM act) that were introduced around 18 months ago it is OK for a business to promote its products to another business - at least that's the way I understand it. I believe the wording regarding the promotion of products and services via spam in both pieces of legislation is a bit of a cop-out, but someone please correct me if I am wrong. I had to close down my .co.uk address because of the amount of spam it was receiving.