[Elecraft] Re: Spam alert

[Julian (G4ILO)]

Martin.

My understanding is that many spam bots are cleverer than that. They are 
well aware of the steps many people take to try to obfuscate their email 
addresses. They can even detect and remove things like "nospam" entered 
into an address. I'm sure that they can understand simple html encoding. 
That's why any article you read on how to prevent spambots getting your 
email address recommend either using a web mail form, or using a small 
Javascript function to generate the mailto: link.

I think you should look at how Yahoo Groups presents email addresses. The 
displayed address is shortened to something like "g4ilo@q...". Yahoo uses a 
web mail form, but the hyperlink could be to a Javascript function that 
creates the mailto: link from arguments consisting of the parts of the 
address in the wrong order, e.g. email(net,g4ilo,qsl) .

As I said, the spam I received yesterday was the first ever to that 
address, and I have used that ISP for over five years. I have a .co.uk 
domain as well as my qsl.net address, so the last time I used that address 
was in 1999 when I first subscribed to this reflector. And the *only* place 
on the web I can find that address is in the reflector archives. It's not 
conclusive, perhaps, but it's a heck of a coincidence.

This issue apart, I really appreciate the work you've done on these 
archives.

73,
--
Julian, G4ILO. (RSGB, ARRL, G-QRP, K2 #392)
G4ILO's Shack: http://www.qsl.net/g4ilo

"Martin AC6RM" <elecraft@ac6rm.net> wrote:

My understanding is that spam bots look for the character '@' as the
starting point for digging out an email address when they scrape web
pages.  If you do a "view" "source" on archive messages, you'll notice
that there aren't any as they are encoded.  It's kinda clever, actually
(wasn't my brainchild; came with the package).

I'm sure the bots'll get more intelligent, but then so will the archivers.
 A never-ending story, I'm afraid (as long as there's money in it).

You'll note that I subscribe to this list with the email address
"elecraft(at)ac6rm.net".  I did that on purpose.  I own the ac6rm.net
domain so I can create any email address I want within that domain and do
anything I want with it.  The point being that if I receive spam addressed
to that email address then I know they got the email address from the
elecraft list, somehow, or because someone put it on their web page.

To date, I have received no -- that's zero -- spam addressed to that email
address (knock-on-K2-case), and I've been subscribed since around
Christmas.

I have, however, received BOAT LOADS of spam directed to my ARRL.NET
alias.  I shut that down a few weeks ago it was so bad.  I also get it
addressed to pgsql(at)ac6rm.net -- my postgresql list subscription
address.

Anyhoozit, I cannot speak for the mailman.qth.net archives; only the ones
I maintain.

73, Martin AC6RM K2#3021