Re: Whimper. Anybody notice huge spam jump??

One of the ways I figured out the source of the problem was that the
non-profit's website email has never generated spam before--these
email addresses are NEVER placed into chat rooms or vendors' lists or
other typical spam harvester haunts. They redirect to other
addresses, and it's the auto-bounceback, non-deliveries that
highlighted the very recent problem--just within the last 3 days.

One can't tell from the campus website whether the same happens
there, but Aron's suggestions certainly will let me test that site's
issues. But I'm using the same javascript in both sites so I suspect
it's happening with the campus email addresses; it just doesn't show
up except as increased spam volume.

The powers-that-be are not going to devote resources to creating a
php website here (unless I take off from work for a month and someone
pays me to learn it! Not!). And you can't really expect a person to
(1) write new content, (2) update older content, (3) teach students
how to use html on their own web pages, and (4) oh yes, run a
research center and support Mac users on the side -- and then program
php for a site of ~60 webpages (with scientific characters). I'm
behind on coding updates and content work as it is.

And I have to say that I personally find contact forms annoying --
unless there is a vehicle for a copy of the email to be sent to me
(rare).

I think I may check out two suggested options. Both essentially
scramble the code and then unscramble it when it's read by a browser;
encryption code is in each webpage. I can try it with a disposable
email address.

Sigh. Wonder how long that will work with these new spambots. Makes
me want to take a nap!

- Marilyn

At 2:57 PM -0800 11/14/06, Scot Hacker wrote:
>My understanding was that javascript obfuscation for mailtos had
>been widely cracked by spammers quite a while ago, and is no longer
>reliable.
>
>We require all email links to point to a web-based contact form,
>and we encrypt the destination address in the form in unusual ways.
>As far as I know, the method has never been cracked by spambots.
>
>Nevertheless, yes, spam rates in general are on a huge uptick
>recently, and our web sites are almost never solely responsible for
>the distribution of email addresses into spammers' hands.
>
>I also don't want to rely on methods that would require manual
>obfuscation - we want to be able to build in methods server-side
>with PHP so we can, for example, automatically obscure the email
>field in every student resume without lifting a finger.
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Received on Tue Nov 14 2006 - 17:05:09 PST