Email AntiLeech
© 2002 by Frédéric Andrieux de Zarma
Why using this
script ?
As mass marketing, multi-level marketing (MLM) and SPAMming are growing
out of control, people tend to use softwares to steal email addresses
from all sites big and small. These softwares are working like robots
and browse your entire site, grabbing everything looking like an email
address. As a result, your visitors get dozens of unsolicited emails in
their box... most being porn or similar offensive content - not very wise
when your children are using the same computer -, some being infected
with a virus and the rest being pure junk marketing.
Though not as secure as a CGI mailing form, this very simple yet original
script will prevent any software from finding a single email address on
your pages... More, it can trace the culprit !
What it does...
Basically, it replaces a chosen string by @ in any coded address it processes
then it launches the client email software with the proper (decoded) address.
How it works...
First,
you need to insert the following code into your pages:
If you wish to make it more difficult for a programmer to build a script
that would automatically read * as @, just modify the following line:
address
= address.split("*");
and replace the *
with any string of your choice without spaces, remembering to start and
end it with anything but a letter, a number, an underscore, an hyphen
or a dot (e.g. *noleech*
or :-)
would work when *no
leech* or ;-P
would not).
If you use SSI on your site for banners, menus, header or whatever, just add the script to the existing file and... voilà... you have it on all pages. It is better to place it within your <HEAD></HEAD> tags or just after the <BODY> opening tag if you want to avoid all JavaScript error messages.
Then
you need to replace @ in all email addresses with the string or the sign
you set previously and replace all usual:
<a
href="mailto:my_address@my_site.com>
with the new syntax:
<a
href="javascript://" onClick="sendmail('my_address*my_site.com');return
false">
In this example, *
is used as the sign set.
Of course, if you have a BBS, a forum, a directory or any
automated page displaying emails, you can very easily modify the related
script to make it display the modified email addresses and the new <a>
tag automatically.
Remember to avoid placing the actual email address as the link:
<a
href="javascript://" onClick="sendmail('my_address*my_site.com');return
false">my_address@my_site.com</a>
would make the script useless... Instead,
use a
sentence, a name or an icon.
FUNNY TIP: if you want
to trace the people who use a grabbing software on your site, set the
string to (spam@my_domain.com)
where spam@my_domain.com
is to be replaced with a specific email account of your own, created ONLY
for receiving SPAMmers messages. The email tags will then look like:
<a
href="javascript://" onClick="sendmail('john(spam@my_domain.com)realsite.com');return
false">
and the software will only grab "spam@mydomain.com" as a valid
email address. When the person will send his mass marketing, you will
receive it in your dedicated SPAMmers email account and know that the
sender used a software to steal emails from your site.
You should then send a complaint to his ISP in order to have his account
closed... just be mean for once...
Here you go... you now have all information needed to secure your site. Let the grabbers-hunting begin !
Working example: click to send an email to Frédéric Andrieux de Zarma (this will be sent to nowhere)
A
large use of the script can be seen all through ArTatoO!
(http://www.artatoo.com)...
try the catalog or artists galleries.
