Comments on: E-mail links, protective solutions against SPAM

By: Olaf

Olaf — Mon, 12 Apr 2010 04:33:50 +0000

Hello Dave,

They use a similar script as suggested in “Hide your e-mail address using PHP”. If your web host is PHP enabled, you should use the function instead.

By: Dave Stuttard

Dave Stuttard — Sun, 11 Apr 2010 23:05:26 +0000

For email addresses, I obfuscate them – a good service for this is at http://www.ianr.unl.edu/email/encode/ . Where a company wants to have a direct email contact, a simple ‘EMAIL’ link can be used (obfuscated in the code, but restored for sending). Any problems with that?
For forms, I include a good captcha.
These precautions work fine for me.

By: Olaf

Olaf — Wed, 03 Mar 2010 08:06:20 +0000

Hello Vaseem,
I think you missed the point all these functions are used to “protect” your e-mail address against spam bots. This is because there are people (mostly companies) need to show their e-mail address instead of using a contact form.

By: vaseem

vaseem — Wed, 03 Mar 2010 08:02:11 +0000

i dont think the above code is effective. as when u use php function it will obscure the letter of e mail address, but the e mail address is visible on web page.
if somebody simply copies the text he can get our e mail address easily.
well nice efforts and nice tutorial
vaseem ansari

By: Olaf

Olaf — Wed, 24 Feb 2010 12:18:16 +0000

Hi Robbe,
sure a database for your website contents is possible, but not very effective. You need to create a complete web form and the sender doesn’t have a copy from his mail.
Actually I don’t understand why I need to store the mail message in database? If I need to create a form, I can forward the message to my email address without to expose the same address to the Internet.

By: Robbe C.

Robbe C. — Wed, 24 Feb 2010 10:13:07 +0000

There’s better sollutions available. Why not make a form which saves the results in a file or a database. You can open the file/db to view it’s content. However, this make you have to do a bit manual labor.

You can also save your email in a db and make the “contact form” fetch it every time someone hit the form button.

The bots wont be able to find your email address if you use these alternatives, but… if you save the content to a file and don’t change the permission the bot will be able to find your users email address if you make the provide it, which you should

Just some thoughts…

By: Hasan Shabbir

Hasan Shabbir — Sat, 20 Feb 2010 10:04:40 +0000

Spam has been world’s worst scenario when you lose your valuable 1% information in 99% junk. The great thing is, we have awesome fighters for this in your form.

By: Olaf

Olaf — Wed, 17 Feb 2010 15:36:38 +0000

Mixing some server side with client side code is the best solution for sure. I think about some Ajax powered function, like: The visitor has to click some “pseudo” link and an Ajax request will show as response the real email link in a virtual window. I think that solution will be very secure and user friendly.

By: Dennis

Dennis — Wed, 17 Feb 2010 15:14:00 +0000

Yeah, that’s pretty simple idea with HTML entities, any bot will be able to convert these nowadays. The javascript and the mix of both are more advanced, especially if you add some garbage JS code (like viruses do).

By: Olaf

Olaf — Wed, 17 Feb 2010 15:06:24 +0000

Hi Dennis,
right my code is not the invention of the year
and you’re right, both code examples are based on the same ideas.

Btw, maybe that your article is based on:
http://www.finalwebsites.com/snippets.php?id=16
and
http://www.finalwebsites.com/snippets.php?id=14

haha, it’s all code of course.