spam

[tanuki]

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Haha, just kidding. Today I got some Japanese-related spam and I'm totally sure they got the address from this site (many other TJP members were in the recipients' list, too). Now, I'd never gotten this kind of commercial spam (what I get are tons of useless chain mails from friends, but what can I do against that?), so it bothered me quite a lot (not with this site, of course, with them).

So, I wanted to ask: is there a way to make my address readable but not trackable (I guess that's what they do to get the address, track it?)? I mean, in my profile. I want to leave it there, just in case someone wants, for some reason, to contact me via e-mail, but I definitely don't want more Japanese-related spam to come.

Thanks in advance for your help. Bye!

[zengargoyle]

sadly probably not. your best bet is to just make it private and if you really really want, put it in your signature in some obscure form: username *at* somewhere %dot% com. and then cross your fingers that the spam bots can't figure out your email from that. the spam bots can already understand the old form: userATsomewhereDOTcom. you might be able to get by with wide characters: ｕｓｅｒ＠ｓｏｍｅｗｈｅｒｅ。ｃｏｍ. but the truth is, if you make it easy for people to use your email then you make it easy for spam bots to use your email.

[prep_girl_Nessa]

Ah! I totally got the same email! I was wondering where it came from lol. Not a big deal, though. I just deleted it.

[crowfeather]

I am on another forum and someone said that if you replace the @ with the word "at" in your email address the web crawlers can't pick it up. I have never tried this . Maybe someone with more computer knowledge can tell us if this is true.

When I joined this forum I included my email address. I got hundreds of spam and many were written in Japanese, so I knew where they came from.
I deleted my email address and little by little I am getting fewer spam.
Barbara

[Shibakoen]

Did you guys have your email addresses posted but "hidden", or no?

[zengargoyle]

just make it hidden. i don't think you can erase it, the forum software needs it to send you your password in case you forget it.

[Infidel]

I am on another forum and someone said that if you replace the @ with the word "at" in your email address the web crawlers can't pick it up. I have never tried this . Maybe someone with more computer knowledge can tell us if this is true

Stuff like that works temporaraly, until the people that write the scripts catch on. Then they make another script to insert @ for at.

Some people like to put spaces, and other such nonsense . One trend I see a lot is to write an email in the format. nickPresidentBush@aol.PresidentBush.com with the comment, remove president bush to send email.

Again, sophisticated scripts can get around this too.

The best solution is simply not to post email publically. Just about every forum has an IM function. If someone wants to contact you they can use the more private IM function to send you their e-mail directly.

Or you can make a smam mail account. Use the smam account for anything you expect to get spammed and have another very private email for more personal business.

[paul_b]

The truth is that they rarely bother with 'sophisticated' scipts for web-crawling address collection. There are just so very many addresses in plain view.

The email I have in my newsgroups postings is ...

blay.paul@gu-gurume-ru.com.invalid

but if anybody wants to email me I'd rather they asked first anyway.

[tanuki]

I see. Thanks everyone for the answers.

I think I'll just hide my address. If anyone needs my e-mail for some reason, please ask via PM.