Defeating Spam with Mail Form?

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  • Me2Be
    Lady Moderator
    • Jun 2000
    • 2504

    Defeating Spam with Mail Form?

    In order to try and combat our massive spam problem in our company (about 35,000 spam a day between all of our accounts), I want to remove our email addresses from our site and replace them with a form they can fill out for correspondence.

    The only problem is most of the email mailto forms I can find have the email address embedded on the HTML page and can still be caught if something searches for it. Does anyone know of any forms I can use that do not have the email address on the html page itself, but perhaps somewhere in the script on the server?
  • DirectPixel
    Senior Member
    • Jan 2002
    • 4703
    • 3.5.x

    #2
    If you use a PHP/ASP/PERL script to power your mail form, then the email address will never be visible.

    You can check out this site for a tutorial on how to do it: http://www.thesitewizard.com/archive/feedbackphp.shtml
    :)

    Comment

    • Chen
      Senior Member
      • Jun 2001
      • 8388

      #3

      Seems like a pretty nice program. You can probably find hundreds of "mail forms" at Hotscripts.com too, most would be for free, but this one stood out... if you don't need all the advanced features, you'd be better off just choosing something from here:
      Hot Scripts is the net's largest PHP, CGI, Perl, JavaScript and ASP script collection and resource web portal. We are an Internet directory that compiles and distributes Web programming-related resources, geared toward webmasters, developers and programmers looking for enhancing their Web sites and intranets with dynamic development tools.
      Chen Avinadav
      Better to remain silent and be thought a fool than to speak out and remove all doubt.

      גם אני מאוכזב מסיקור תחרות לתור מוטור של NRG הרשת ע"י מעריב

      Comment

      • Lacrosse Boy
        Senior Member
        • Jan 2003
        • 365

        #4
        This is a useful script that displays a link to your e-mail address but stops spam engines from grabbing your e-mail address for spammage use. It is useful if you do not want to have a form.

        Code:
           <script type="text/javascript">
        user = "username";
        site = "websitename";
        document.write('<a href=\"mailto:' + user + '@' + site + '?subject=Your site' + '\">');
        document.write('Webmaster' + '</a>');
        </script>
        | DiscBurn | CD & DVD Replication services, film and VHS to DVD, and duplication equipment
        |
        Disc On Demand | Short-run CD & DVD duplication... all online.

        Comment

        • Me2Be
          Lady Moderator
          • Jun 2000
          • 2504

          #5
          Wow, thank you!!! This is exactly what I've been looking for -- these options are great

          Comment

          • Freddie Bingham
            Former vBulletin Developer
            • May 2000
            • 14057
            • 1.1.x

            #6
            You could also modify the vB3 Contact Us form (click on 'Contact Us' below).

            Comment

            • Me2Be
              Lady Moderator
              • Jun 2000
              • 2504

              #7
              Originally posted by Freddie
              You could also modify the vB3 Contact Us form (click on 'Contact Us' below).
              Actually, this isn't for my Vb -- it's for my general sites

              Comment

              • Chris M
                Senior Member
                • Apr 2002
                • 1387
                • 3.6.x

                #8
                Lacrosse Boy's suggestion seems to be the best without the use of PHP or other complex languages

                Satan

                Comment

                • filburt1
                  Senior Member
                  • Feb 2002
                  • 6606

                  #9
                  If you still want to show the address itself, use an image--which spambots can't read.
                  --filburt1, vBulletin.org/vBulletinTemplates.com moderator
                  Web Design Forums.net: vB Board of the Month
                  vBulletin Mail System (vBMS): webmail for your forum users

                  Comment

                  • CeleronXT
                    Senior Member
                    • Mar 2002
                    • 3217

                    #10
                    Originally posted by Lacrosse Boy
                    This is a useful script that displays a link to your e-mail address but stops spam engines from grabbing your e-mail address for spammage use. It is useful if you do not want to have a form.

                    Code:
                       <script type="text/javascript">
                    user = "username";
                    site = "websitename";
                    document.write('<a href=\"mailto:' + user + '@' + site + '?subject=Your site' + '\">');
                    document.write('Webmaster' + '</a>');
                    </script>
                    The problem you might have with that, though, is that it won't work for people with JavaScript off.
                    "63,000 bugs in the code, 63,000 bugs, you get 1 whacked with a service pack, now there's 63,005 bugs in the code."
                    "Before you critisize someone, walk a mile in their shoes. That way, when you critisize them, you're a mile away and you have their shoes."
                    Utopia Software - Current Software: Utopia News Pro (news management system)

                    Comment

                    • merk
                      Senior Member
                      • Jul 2001
                      • 4149

                      #11
                      Originally posted by Me2Be
                      In order to try and combat our massive spam problem in our company (about 35,000 spam a day between all of our accounts), I want to remove our email addresses from our site and replace them with a form they can fill out for correspondence.

                      The only problem is most of the email mailto forms I can find have the email address embedded on the HTML page and can still be caught if something searches for it. Does anyone know of any forms I can use that do not have the email address on the html page itself, but perhaps somewhere in the script on the server?
                      It does suck when you get lots of spam like that. Youll never be able to remove your emails from the listings anymore, though. Theres a list out there now with your companies email addresses, though you can stop it from getting increased with email harvesters.

                      Have you tried using spam filters?

                      Comment

                      • ShiningArcanine
                        Senior Member
                        • Feb 2003
                        • 2482
                        • 3.0.3

                        #12
                        First, save the spam emails. Second, (you don't have to but it will get you off the spam lists) change your email addresses (preferably the domain). Then encode all email addresses viewable via the internet with this:



                        Next if you run Apache, put this in an .htaccess in the public root (or above it if Apache will see it):

                        RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} (html|php)?$
                        RewriteCond %{HTTP_USER_AGENT} ^EmailSiphon [OR]
                        RewriteCond %{HTTP_USER_AGENT} ^EmailWolf [OR]
                        RewriteCond %{HTTP_USER_AGENT} ^ExtractorPro [OR]
                        RewriteCond %{HTTP_USER_AGENT} ^Mozilla.*NEWT [OR]
                        RewriteCond %{HTTP_USER_AGENT} ^Crescent [OR]
                        RewriteCond %{HTTP_USER_AGENT} ^CherryPicker [OR]
                        RewriteCond %{HTTP_USER_AGENT} ^[Ww]eb[Bb]andit [OR]
                        RewriteCond %{HTTP_USER_AGENT} ^WebEMailExtrac.* [OR]
                        RewriteCond %{HTTP_USER_AGENT} ^NICErsPRO [OR]
                        RewriteCond %{HTTP_USER_AGENT} ^Telesoft [OR]
                        RewriteCond %{HTTP_USER_AGENT} ^Zeus.*Webster [OR]
                        RewriteCond %{HTTP_USER_AGENT} ^Microsoft.URL [OR]
                        RewriteCond %{HTTP_USER_AGENT} ^Mozilla/3.Mozilla/2.01 [OR]
                        RewriteCond %{HTTP_USER_AGENT} ^EmailCollector
                        RewriteRule ^.*$ /spam.html [R]
                        Setup a spam program on the server like Spam Assassin. Then install Spamunition (upserve.com, a little buggy but it works) on each of the PCs in your company. Finally, train Spamunition with the spam you saved (don't delete it after training it since you will need it to retrain it in the future if needbe).

                        Now you should have virtually an exact copy of PokemonFanUniverse.com's antispam defense system. ^_^

                        Comment

                        • WizyWyg
                          Senior Member
                          • Jul 2001
                          • 1309
                          • 2.3.0

                          #13
                          Or you could just use a simple HTML hash (for example):
                          PHP Code:
                          <a href="mailto:me@privacy.net?Subject=Hello">&#84;est</a> 
                          For example. I've been using this since 1998 on my pages on my personal site, and not once has it been "lifted" by a spambot. The only "spam" i ever got on the address I use, was due to a dictionary attack, and I never received another spam again. And its a fairly "easily" spammable type email address.
                          Last edited by WizyWyg; Thu 31 Jul '03, 7:36pm.
                          There are only 10 types of people in the world: Those who understand binary, and those who don't

                          Comment

                          • WizyWyg
                            Senior Member
                            • Jul 2001
                            • 1309
                            • 2.3.0

                            #14
                            hehe, yeah , it can muck up some important things sometimes

                            edit: hmm odd, I thought I was replying to somene when i wrote this,
                            but also wanted to add that I currently use this method on my company's website, since we had to change our support email address due the amt of spam were getting; we haven't received one spam message yet and its been up with the new email address since late June.

                            Record of getting spam to an Email address I own:

                            40 minutes after using it unmunged in a newsgroup.
                            Last edited by WizyWyg; Thu 31 Jul '03, 7:40pm.
                            There are only 10 types of people in the world: Those who understand binary, and those who don't

                            Comment

                            • DirectPixel
                              Senior Member
                              • Jan 2002
                              • 4703
                              • 3.5.x

                              #15
                              *cough* /me kicks the vbCode parser
                              :)

                              Comment

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