How to Hide E-mail Links
from Spammers
How to keep spammers from getting your E-mail address
If you include an email address in a website there is a good chance unscrupulous people will find the email address and use it to send you unwanted spam. Email addresses in websites are harvested by spam bot/spider programs that are constantly searching the web to find email addresses.
Following are some of the methods that have been used to conceal an email address from the spam bots/spiders.
- Include email address as text but don't include "mailto:" code in the HTML.
- Display email address as a picture.
- Camouflage email with missing/extra characters so the person using the email address has to add/delete characters before sending the email.
- Simple script encoders that scramble the email address in the html code.
The above methods DO NOT provide good protection anymore as the spammers can now detect and harvest the emails addresses anyway.
This page will tell you how to use the free Hivelogic Enkoder to include an email address in a website in a way that will make it very unlikely that a spammer will get the email address. The email address will display in the webpage normally but is encoded/scrambled in the webpage code in a way that it is very unlikely that a spammer will be able to find the email address.
NOTE: Encoding an existing email address that is getting a lot of spam will not stop spam from spammers that already have that address. It is better to create a new email address and then stop using the old address. Be careful not to give out the new address where spammers can find it (forums, myspace, online classifieds, etc.).
The following procedure will create a java script that can replace the normal "mailto:" code in the html code for a webpage. You do not have to be a skilled html coder to perform this procedure but you do need to have an understanding of html code. If you use a WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get) webpage designer that does not allow for the editing of a page's html code or the insertion of a script box you may not be able to use this method.
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2. Enter the email address in the "Email Address" box. For example; mymail@mysite.com Do not include "mailto:" prior to the email address.
CAUTION: Be very careful that the entered email address is correct as you will not be able to view it in the encoded script.
 3. Enter the desired link text in the "Link Text" box. This will be the highlighted text the webpage user will click to send the email. This can be the email address or text such as: "Click here to send an email to sales."
 4. Enter the desired pop-up text in the "Link Title" box. This is the text that will appear in a pop-up when the cursor is placed over the email link text.
For example: "E-mail for Sales".
 5. If you like, enter subject text in the "Subject (Optional)" box. This text will appear in the subject line of the email. For example; "Sales information request".
If you use the same email address for more than one website you can include unique information for each website so you will know what site initiated the email. For example: "From mysite.com".
 6. Click on the Enkode It button. The encoded java script should appear.
 7. Click in the ENKODED RESULT box and do a Ctrl-a to highlight/select the code and then do a Ctrl-c to make a copy of the code.
CAUTION: Be very sure all characters are selected or the script will not work.
Leave the window open in case you need to go back and re-copy the new code.
NOTE: If you use WYSIWYG webpage design software where you do not work directly in the HTML code for the page you will either have to convert the entire page to HTML code or, if the software allows, create a script box and insert the new email code in the script box. You will need to delete the old email link.
8. Use your web page editor/web design software to open the applicable page.
Perform step 9 if you are going to put the new code directly into the the HTML code.
Perform step 10 if you are going to put the new code in a script box.
HTML Editing steps
9a. Find the email "mailto:"portion of the HTML code and insert a couple line
breaks (Enter key) just before the "<a" and just after the "/a>".
It should now look like this:
<a href="mailto:mymail@mymailsite.com">mymail@mymailsite.com</a>
9b. Delete the the above email code. Use the Delete key so the deleted code
does not replace the new encoded code in the cut/paste buffer.
9c. Paste (Ctrl-v) the new encoded code in the blank area. Having a blank line
before and after the new code will make it easy to locate it if you need to update it
at a latter date.
WYSIWYG Editor steps
10a. Delete existing email text and link. Use the Delete key so the deleted old
information does not replace the new encoded code in the cut/paste buffer.
10b. Insert a script box on the page where you want the email link. If the old email
link was in the middle of the page contents you will have to split the contents into
two text/table boxes so the new email script box can be inserted between them.
10c. Paste (Ctrl-v) the new email code into the script box.
11. Save and test the modified page before publishing/uploading it to the website. Be sure to send a test email from the website to be sure it works correctly.
NOTE: If you make a mistake in your Hivelogic form input you will have to repeat this procedure as the new email code can not be edited.
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