Email spambots are web crawlers which are used by spammers and other automated email harvesting tools to scan and look for possible email addresses on the web. An email spambot looks for the syntax of an email address something with an @ and a . (dot) symbol. It first scans a webpage for a text which is having the syntax of an email address. Then, this email address is harvested is put in to a list for sending blasts.
There are various methods to protect and hide email addresses in the web:
1) Contact forms: The most important use of a contact form is to protect the email address. This is the most common approach used by bloggers and webmasters to hide their email addresses from spammers. Typically, all the WordPress users, use a contact form for protecting their web page. Installing a contact form in WordPress is simple, either you can use a WordPress theme framework like Genesis where you get templates for creating a contact form or you can use a WordPress plugin for adding a custom contact form. For Example, this is our contact form.
2) Images: Instead of typing the email address, you can add an image of the email address. Email spambots cannot scan an image and thus, your email address stays hidden, but is visible for human visitors.
3) Email address munging: Email address munging is yet another technique where email address is disguised. You can also use an automated tool to for email address munging. For Example, this tool has advanced options like generating custom email link and image link where you just have to enter the your email address and select appropriate options as per your requirements.
4) Email Obfuscating: Email Obfuscating is another method to hide an email address. All you have to do is go to this tool, enter your email address and display name and click on “Submit Address”. It will Obfuscate your email address and generate a clickable mailto link code and an email address only without any mailto link code, which you can copy and paste in your site.
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