Encode your mailto links to avoid spammers

Mail links in most Web pages (mailto:) allow spammers with special software — sometimes referred to as "spambots" — to automatically harvest email addresses. Well, using Hivelogic's Enkoder (a Web-based script or downloadable Java applet formerly known as "Email Address Encoder") you can have the same functionality as mailto links but without revealing addresses to spammers. It basically "encodes" mailto links using JavaScript and HTML escape codes. You simply enter 3 things — email address, link text, and hover text — and click the Encode It! button. You'll end up with something like this in the Results box:

<script type="text/javascript">
<!--
  var first = 'ma';
  var second = 'il';
  var third = 'to:';
  var address = '&#100;&#116;&#45;&#98;&#108;
&#111;&#103;';
  var domain = '&#98;&#98;&#100;&#111;&#97;
&#115;&#105;&#97;&#46;&#99;&#111;&#109;';
  document.write('<a href="');
  document.write(first+second+third);
  document.write(address);
  document.write('&#64;');
  document.write(domain);
  document.write('" title="Email me">');
  document.write('Email me<\/a>');
// -->
</script>

You then substitute the above code for everything in between and including the <a href="mailto:...">Email me</a> in your normal mailto link. The result is this:

I used this in the first issue of our company newsletter which we made available for readers whose mail clients don't support HTML well or at all (e.g. Lotus Notes). The original HTML/XML code was done in Microsoft Outlook using Microsoft Word as the editor. I then tweaked the code using BBEdit on my Mac.

I first learned of Enkoder from the 01.10.2003 edition of the Lockergnome WebREPORT.

I suppose that programmers who develop spambot software could update their code to circumvent this technique. We'll then have to come up with something else. ARGH!... the battle with the spammers never ends!

Posted by derek at January 23, 2003 12:14 AM