Spam and Porn issues

[HotHolly]

Hey, does using a webform for email cut down on the amount of porn and spam Im getting...nobody needs that much porn, loans, or other junk...

[Daniel Bates]

Yep, it will. The robots can read your address from your website.

I can help you put a contact form on your site... it should kill most if not all of that junk.

[Detonate]

If you are already getting the spam, don't count on it cutting down the volume.

Now if you start a new email address and use a form, then you'll likely dodge the bullet for a much longer before ending up on a volume mailing list.

[Daniel Bates]

That's what I meant... I just didn't write it very well.

[HotHolly]

I currently have it as a link...Is that about as silly as typing out the address? Im wondering if these are old issues or new ones.

[Detonate]

The problem is that it just searchs your text for aaaaa@bbbbbb.ccc

One thing you can do is to use Javascript to create the link, this way the spam bot won't find the text it is looking for.

Example below

<script language="JavaScript" type="text/javascript">
<!-- Hide me from older non-JavaScript-enabled browsers 

var name = "me"; 
var atsign = "@"; 
var virtual_domain = "mydomain"; 
var dotcom = ".com"; 

document.write("<a href=mailto:", name + atsign + 
virtual_domain + dotcom, ">Email me!</a>"); 

// --> 
        </script>

Any where you paste that code, the user would see Email Me!

[Hanky]

My peronal acct. must avg. 10-15 a day. I thought they outlawed spam.
Online drugs and investment advice. sheesh

[Michelle Allmon]

...or at least send some GOOD porn. sheesh.

[HotHolly]

Thanks for the script...

l'll have to try that and see if it helps. It seems that the loan people got it today. I'm getting flooded with loans and porn.

Whats up with the word "sheesh" tonight? Havent heard that in years. Has it become retro? :o)

[Daniel Bates]

"Sheesh"? Retro? Sheesh.

[Michelle Allmon]

dang.

[metagore]

I see that you're using a 'mailto' link on your site for contact information. While adding the script to the site will prevent future bots from indexing your email address, the damage is already done. Once your email gets out there it's almost as though it gets put on some 'master spammer's list'. I've ran into this with a couple of my sites.

What you can do to limit the amount of junk that actually makes it into your email box is this:

- If your email account is from your web server, and it's a Linux based server, you will most likely have SpamAssassin installed. It isn't enabled by default. Once you turn it on you will see a dramatic drop in the amount of spam that you download from the server.

- Secondly, if you have Outlook 2003/2007, enable the junk mail filter. This will catch most of the remainder that still make it through. Thunderbird (mozilla) also has a built in spam filter, but I haven't used it extensively to determine if it's better or worse than the Outlook filters.

I am sent 500+ pieces of spam each day at my website email addresses. Only about 5-10 actually make it into my inbox.

[Nocturnus]

I get ~300/day one one account. I swiched over to form basied contact and changed my address.. I still check the spamed account for legit and filter out alot in outlook via keywords..

[epoh]

What you need is SpamAssassin running on your mail server. My primary email account gets somewhere in the neighborhood of 5,000 - 10,000 spam emails a week. I only end up with about 15-20 in my inbox. Spam Assassin is awesome.

[JamesB]

I use this script and use a disposable email address (forwarder). so if I start getting junk from that forwarder, I will delete it and replace it with a different unique email forwarder.

James

Originally Posted by Detonate

The problem is that it just searchs your text for aaaaa@bbbbbb.ccc

One thing you can do is to use Javascript to create the link, this way the spam bot won't find the text it is looking for.

Example below

<script language="JavaScript" type="text/javascript">
<!-- Hide me from older non-JavaScript-enabled browsers 

var name = "me"; 
var atsign = "@"; 
var virtual_domain = "mydomain"; 
var dotcom = ".com"; 

document.write("<a href=mailto:", name + atsign + 
virtual_domain + dotcom, ">Email me!</a>"); 

// --> 
        </script>

Any where you paste that code, the user would see Email Me!