TravelSite - 1:40 pm on Nov 10, 2006 (gmt 0)

I don't bother with putting my email address on websites due to email harvesters. Contact forms are better.

If in a rush I'll do an image version of the email (with no mailto - folk have to manually enter it).

But I'm also seeing more spam email - including lots of emails pretending to be from banks etc. It's a series issue that there isn't really an adequate solution to.

Theres no point in assuming that people should know better. Not everyone has the neceassary range of internet skills, social skills and experience required to be able to work out what's real and what isn't.

With reports of people in call centers both here (UK) and abroad being only too happy to steal and sell your details, things can only get worse - spam email that already includes information about you to make it seem more authentic.

A secure padlocked version of email has to be urgently developed so that people can't falsify email addresses and so that emails can't be read by others. I think that companies should have to sign something which registers their company, logo etc. Then software rewritten to highlight safe company emails. Any company pretending to be someone they aren't (e.g. bank emails, similiar domains etc) could be identified by the public and have their company email licence revoked. Perhaps this could be done at a country level.

Something has to be done about it anyway.

Email should have the potential to replace normal letters through the post. But anyone serious about security - such as banks - are better off just sending out post and telling their users to ignore all emails that appear to come from them in my opinion.