Mailing List Message #9757
From: Michael Croft <>
Subject: Re: Address harvesting?
Date: Wed, 28 Nov 2001 07:31:24 -0600
To: SIMS Discussions <>
At 1:17 PM +0000 11/28/01, Steve Linford wrote:

>Address harvesters are very simple, they just follow links and either
>look for a "mailto" or an "@" and copy the text either side of it
>until they reach a space. They can't reach a page which isn't linked
>to by other pages, and they can't read Javascript so you can put
>email addresses on your pages concealed by a script like this:

>I've been using this method on all my sites since 1998 and have never
>once received spam to any address published using this method. (if
>you're running a commercial site the chances of a visitor not having
>javascript turned on are minuscule)

Didn't know about the mailto: part of the harvester, but we've been using
&#064; instead of @ in mailto links on web pages for years with the same
lack of spam.  Probably will go back and see if it doesn't break if I use
the entity for ':' now, based on your report.

Can't say it will help, but it can't hurt.  In fact, I hope that the simple
method keeps working on other people's pages well enough that harvesters
don't get more sophisticated...

I put our spamtrap address on every page in a comment, because I want it to
be harvested all over.  Don't know how often it gets harvested but, even
once is useful.
Michael Croft       http;//
SAM: It's 106 miles to the Crack of Doom. We've got a magic ring,
           two daggers, it's dark, and we're wearing sunglasses
FRODO: Hit it.