[Mailman-Developers] Protecting email addresses from spam harvesters

[Paul Schreiber]

--- "Barry A. Warsaw" <barry@zope.com> wrote:
> 
> >>>>> "PS" == Paul Schreiber <cheesefactory@yahoo.com> writes:
> 
>     PS> While I'm on the topic....
>     PS>
>
http://www.apple.com/downloads/macosx/system_disk_utilities/spamstopper.html
> 
>     PS> That utility translates all the characters in an email address
>     PS> to character entities, something spambots aren't likely to
>     PS> pick up on. for now, anyway.
> 
>     PS> i.e. mailman could incorporate something like this.
> 
> Interesting, except that I suspect the mailto: is a dead giveaway.
> Seems like something the harvesters could easily adjust for and
> detect, so I don't see the value in spending time implementing it.

Yes,, but you can encode the "mailto:" as well, like so:
<a
href="&#109;&#97;&#105;&#108;&#116;&#111;&#58;&#106;&#111;&#101;&#64;&#97;&#111;&#108;&#46;&#99;&#111;&#109;">me</a>

I would guess most spambots are pretty dumb, probably using a silly regex
like <a href="mailto:([^"]+)">.


Paul

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