Prevent Spam Bots Scraping Your Email Address

[judyofthewoods]

This post has been moved to http://www.judyofthewoods.net/spam_protection.html

[AlisonKerr]

I use Contact Forms, which require someone to enter several fields on my page and do not give out my e-mail address. I do still get a little spam this way, usually a handful of e-mails a week once a site has been running for 6 months or so.

One of my sites is done with CSS/html - you can see the contact form here http://greatfunbooks.com/contact-us.shtml. If anyone needs code for a CSS/html site I can try to explain it.

On my wordpress site I'm currently using a contact form plug-in Contact Form 7 http://contactform7.com/. I'm sure there are other Wordpress plugins and some, I think, include the captcha type requirement for submission. Contact Form 7 isn't very sophisticated, but it's free and is working well for me for now. Here is how it looks: http://lovingnaturesgarden.com/contact/

[Beth]

Good info, thanks!

And that reminds me that I never actually set up the contact info or e-mails or anything for my new site... putting it on the List! I'm leaning toward using a contact form, since stuff like yourname at yourdomain dot com doesn't appeal to me somehow.

Stupid spammers, making stuff hard for everyone!

[RachelM]

Oh bum, there was me thinking the mailto thing was fine with a clickable email me

It will be on my to do list to change!

Thanks Judy

[judyofthewoods]

Thanks for the information on contact forms, Alison. I didn't realize they were not standard issue with blog software. Good to know there are plug ins for the less technical minded.

The ideas I gave above were just simple ones to use on a static website as it does not involve special coding skills. From what little I know about contact forms, I think they are a server side feature. Did you have to do any php, Pearl or other weird coding an upload some script to your server to make it work? Are there easy to use copy and paste scripts you can recommend for a contact form for a static website?

I think the spam which still finds its way through is almost certainly some human browsing sites and contacting you directly. These methods do at least stem the deluge of casino, Viagra and what-not spam.

Beth, I agree, the gap method is a little clunky, though some people prefer it. Some people are also quite keen on keeping the use of javascript down or not use it at all. My personal preference is the javascripts version which people can simply click on and the mail form pops up. There is also a gap version for those who have javascript disabled. A contact page will not have much content on it, so the javascript slowing down the page load would not be an issue.

Rachel, I'd be interested what your spam situation is. I also wonder how often spam bots spider the web. If you have not been spammed yet, you may be in good time.

One other tip I forgot to mention, which is also useful for any email address anyone creates, not just for websites. Spam bots will also randomly generate email addresses and send out probably millions of these in the hope that some turn out to be real addresses. The best way to protect yourself from that kind of spamming is to create email addresses which also contain numbers and allowable characters as there would be just too many possibilities, and their software is just geared at probability.

[RachelM]

Considering my email address is out there on the web on two different websites for all to see, I hardly get much spam. I think it's because the webhost I use for that account is excellent. If anyone is looking for a good webhost I can't recommend Vision Internet http://www.visn.co.uk/ highly enough! Whenever I email them - even on a Sunday, the guy who runs it - Dave emails me back, usually within an hour. They don't charge a lot for the service and have a very efficient spam protection service that comes with each web package account.

When I first joined them (about 8yrs ago) their spam filter was a bit too efficient and the odd email went astray - but usually a couple of days later I got the email with an apology that it got sifted out - doesn't happen now. I should probably become an affiliate but not got around to it yet!

[AlisonKerr]

"From what little I know about contact forms, I think they are a server side feature. Did you have to do any php, Pearl or other weird coding an upload some script to your server to make it work? Are there easy to use copy and paste scripts you can recommend for a contact form for a static website?"

Judy, I'm not entirely sure. My static sites are done with CSS and html - no php or scripts. I code them using the Notepad ++ text editor. The code for the contact forms is done that way, along with the rest of the code for the static pages.

My sites are hosted with GoDaddy.com. I upload the CSS, html and graphics files using ftp, but I don't do the GoDaddy admin management - I have technical help for that. I believe there was something to do on the admin management side to set up the e-mail address to work with the contact form.

I don't know if that helps.

[AlisonKerr]

I was getting some spam using the Contact Form 7 Wordpress plugin so I changed plugin today. I am now using WP Contact Form which is supposed to have some Askimet spam checking.

For anyone on Wordpress needing a Contact Form plugin here is a site which reviews three: http://themelib.com/2009/01/3-common-contact-form-wordpress-plugins/