email farming

avoidance

[brdwlsh]

i have one e-mail address that gets no spam at all. it is reserved for clients, friends, and family.

i want to post this address on a site i am working on so that my prospective clients can see it.

is this how email farmers get their addresses or is it from the source code mailto link, or both?

if i put a spaces around the @ symbol will this deter email farmers from getting my address?
example: myname @ ripoff.net instead of [e-mail]

i'm guessing i have to leave the mailto link out alltogether.

am i just being paranoid?

[sem4u]

You could use a javascript solution so that bots can't read it. Putting your address as an image would also help.

[lawman]

http://alicorna.com/obfuscator.html

[Giacomo]

<?php 
function ascii_encode($string) { 
$encoded = ''; 
for ($i=0; $i < strlen($string); $i++) { 
$encoded .= '&#'.ord(substr($string,$i)).';';  
} 
return $encoded; 
} 
$email='[e-mail]'; 
echo '<a href="mailto:'.ascii_encode($email).'">'.ascii_encode($email).'</a>'; 
?>

[Robert Charlton]

Try the Hiveware Enkoder. There's a free online form for encoding your address. Requires user to have javascript enabled to see your address. You might also do a site search for email address encoding.

I've noted, though, that I get a lot of spam on some addresses I've had that have never ever been released online or publicized in any way.

[Leosghost]

Don't know about where you are ..but here in France our I.S.P's give out our emails to spammers....I recently got an email from a major telephone company offering business rate deals that addressed me by First and Surname! Via an email address provided to me by the nationalised telephone and I.S.P service ( who are the first companies competitors )...No one else had the possibility to know all three items ...and "lol" ..we've got a "data protection act"