How to protect your e-mail address from spammers

By Daniel J.M. Guibord

     Obscuring the HTML code of an e-mail address is a very effective way to avoid spam from harvesters on the Web. E-mail address-harvesting programs do not attempt to identify and decipher encoded e-mail addresses. Otherwise, the time-to-result ratio would be quite simply prohibitive.

     Highlight the code below, copy, then paste into the body of your html page where you want the e-mail address to appear, then edit the items shown in bold to reflect the address and other fields you want to appear on the e-mail...as below.

E-mail address only                                                                 Comments that can be inserted alongside the code

<script type="text/javascript">

var encrypted=String.fromCharCode(109,97,105,108,116,111,58);   <!--  CharCode “109,97,105,108,116,111,58” = “mailto:” //-->

document.write("<a href=\"");

document.write(encrypted);                                                         <!--  write “mailto:” //-->

document.write("smith.john");

document.write(String.fromCharCode(64));                                    <!--  CharCode 64 = “@” //-->

document.write("domain.com");

document.write("\">");

document.write("email_to_john_smith");                                  <!--  E-mail address that is to appear on the webpage //-->

document.write(String.fromCharCode(32+32));

document.write("domain.com");

document.write("</a>");

</script>

It looks like this. Click on it.

E-mail address + Cc + Bcc + Subject line + Body text             Comments that can be inserted alongside the code

<script type="text/javascript">

var encrypted=String.fromCharCode(109,97,105,108,116,111,58);   <!--  CharCode “109,97,105,108,116,111,58” = “mailto:” //-->

document.write("<a href=\"");

document.write(encrypted);                                                         <!--  write “mailto:” //-->

document.write("smith.john");

document.write(String.fromCharCode(64));                                    <!--  CharCode 64 = “@” //-->

document.write("domain.com");

document.write("?cc=copyme");                                                 <!--  Cc field //-->

document.write(String.fromCharCode(64));

document.write("otherdomain.com");

document.write("&bcc=backcopytome");                                    <!--  Bcc field //-->

document.write(String.fromCharCode(64));

document.write("mydomain.com");

document.write("&subject=");                                                      <!--  Subject field //-->

document.write("Get%20rid%20of%20spammers");

document.write("&body=");                                                         <!--  Body field (e-mail’s text field) //-->

document.write("This%20is%20the%20way%20to%20go.");

document.write("\">");

document.write("email_to_john_smith");                                  <!--  E-mail address that is to appear on the webpage //-->

document.write(String.fromCharCode(32+32));

document.write("domain.com");

document.write("</a>");

</script>

It looks like this. Click on it.

E-mail address with an animated GIF                                      Comments that can be inserted alongside the code

<script type="text/javascript">

var encrypted =String.fromCharCode(109,97,105,108,116,111,58);  <!--  CharCode “109,97,105,108,116,111,58” = “mailto:” //-->

document.write("<a href=\"");

document.write(encrypted);                                                         <!--  write “mailto:” //-->

document.write("information");

document.write(String.fromCharCode(64));                                    <!--  CharCode 64 = “@” //-->

document.write("mydomain.com");

document.write("\">");

document.write("<img border=0 width=50 height=31 src=\"email-34.gif\" title=\"Information at mydomain.com\" alt=\" Information at mydomain.com \" /> ");                                    <!--  relative path to the animated GIF file, followed by

                                                                                                 the screen tip for the animated GIF //-->

document.write("</a>");

</script>

It looks like this. Click on it.