Visitors Email Address

  • Thread starter Thread starter Bill Tobin
  • Start date Start date
B

Bill Tobin

Is there a way to protect visitors who might sign up on our site from spam?
I registered my own email address, but didn't even post it on our site, and
now receive 5 to 10 spam's a day which I never got before registering.

Alternatively, could we email a newsletter to our customers, which would
bring them to our site, without them receiving spam? We don't want to be the
cause of our customers receiving spam for any reason. Thanks for any advice.
 
Bill Tobin said:
Is there a way to protect visitors who might sign up on our site from spam?
I registered my own email address, but didn't even post it on our site, and
now receive 5 to 10 spam's a day which I never got before registering.

Alternatively, could we email a newsletter to our customers, which would
bring them to our site, without them receiving spam? We don't want to be the
cause of our customers receiving spam for any reason. Thanks for any advice.
Click to expand...

You are confused about how spam works.

Some spammers use "brute force" emails. They try all possible combinations
of usernames on the domain. If there is an account "xyz123ghsbw11" which is
never posted anywhere or spoken out loud or anything, it will get spam
because they tried 1 through "xyz123ghsbw10" before stumbling on the good
one.

If you have email, you will get spam directed at the box. Get a filter
system if you want to avoid it.

Why would your newsletter cause spam?
 
I don't know how spam works. I guess because the media is electronic and
programmed by computers anything is possible. The host has something called
"Spam Assassin", but all that seems to do is identify spam, not very useful.
I still have to look at it to be sure, and then delete each one.

As far as our newsletter causing our recipients to get spam, I don't know if
it will. If it's possible for it to somehow cause our visitors to get spam,
I would like to prevent the spam, if possible.
 
Just added my own email address to the Mail Admin panel. I didn't post it
anywhere on the site.
 
Ah, well, in that case, welcome to the world of owning your own domain! I
get about 300 - 400 SPAMs a day from mine. I just forward them to the ftc
and delete them. ;-)

--
HTH,

Kevin Spencer
Microsoft MVP
..Net Developer
http://www.takempis.com
Big Things are made up of
Lots of Little Things.
 
Every domain / server account has a "default" e-mail address
even if you don't specify one. Since you have specified
one, and e-mail sent to the "domain" automatically "defaults"
to your account.

I'm not sure about MST servers, but Apache's running UNIX and
Cpanel have a setting that rejects anything but e-mails to a valid address.

hth



Is there a way to protect visitors who might sign up on our site from spam?
I registered my own email address, but didn't even post it on our site, and
now receive 5 to 10 spam's a day which I never got before registering.

Alternatively, could we email a newsletter to our customers, which would
bring them to our site, without them receiving spam? We don't want to be the
cause of our customers receiving spam for any reason. Thanks for any advice.
 
We want to receive the legitimate ones. I'm guessing this is a neophyte
question, but is there a way to filter out the spam so we don't even see it
and get the legitimate ones?
 
On an Apache server running UNIX and Cpanel yes.
I don't know about a MSFT server or IIS.


--
95isalive
This site is best viewed..................
...............................with a computer
We want to receive the legitimate ones. I'm guessing this is a neophyte
question, but is there a way to filter out the spam so we don't even see it
and get the legitimate ones?
 
We are hosted on a Win 2000 Server.
Steve Easton said:
On an Apache server running UNIX and Cpanel yes.
I don't know about a MSFT server or IIS.


--
95isalive
This site is best viewed..................
..............................with a computer
We want to receive the legitimate ones. I'm guessing this is a neophyte
question, but is there a way to filter out the spam so we don't even see it
and get the legitimate ones?
Click to expand...
 
If your email address was part of the form, the email address is seen in
html view, and that's how spammers find it.

If a visitor signs up on your site, and the email address is not available
on the site or in html view in any way, they should not be spammed as a
result.
--
-----
Tom Pepper Willett
Microsoft MVP - FrontPage
----
| Is there a way to protect visitors who might sign up on our site from
spam?
| I registered my own email address, but didn't even post it on our site,
and
| now receive 5 to 10 spam's a day which I never got before registering.
|
| Alternatively, could we email a newsletter to our customers, which would
| bring them to our site, without them receiving spam? We don't want to be
the
| cause of our customers receiving spam for any reason. Thanks for any
advice.
|
|
 
Tom,
From your reply it seems that email addresses can somehow be disguised or
hidden. Can you say how to hide an email address from a spammer?
 
Yes, hire a secretary to screen your email. <grin>

Okay, that was smart-alecky, but what I mean is that there are lots of ways
to automatically filter your email (your email program has filters, you can
buy or subscribe to spam blockers, your host may have solutions), but the
only way to be sure is to have a human look at the mail. I use Yahoo's spam
filter for my yahoo account. It sends spam to a special folder that
self-deletes if too full. I still check that folder periodically to make
sure some legit mail didn't get sent by mistake. I've found a few.
 
It depends on the mail server that the host has installed.

--

==============================================
Thomas A. Rowe (Microsoft MVP - FrontPage)
WEBMASTER Resources(tm)

FrontPage Resources, Forums, WebCircle,
MS KB Quick Links, etc.
==============================================
 
Bill,

Since you are on a Windows Server, you can use ASP to process the form data
and avoid having your email address available to spam robots.

As for your users, unless you are storing the data they submit in a text
file on your site or displaying it on a page, then it is not possible for
the spam robots to get their email info.

--

==============================================
Thomas A. Rowe (Microsoft MVP - FrontPage)
WEBMASTER Resources(tm)

FrontPage Resources, Forums, WebCircle,
MS KB Quick Links, etc.
==============================================
 
Thanks to everyone.
Thomas A. Rowe said:
Bill,

Since you are on a Windows Server, you can use ASP to process the form data
and avoid having your email address available to spam robots.

As for your users, unless you are storing the data they submit in a text
file on your site or displaying it on a page, then it is not possible for
the spam robots to get their email info.

--

==============================================
Thomas A. Rowe (Microsoft MVP - FrontPage)
WEBMASTER Resources(tm)

FrontPage Resources, Forums, WebCircle,
MS KB Quick Links, etc.
==============================================


to
Click to expand...
 
what's the forward to address on that?
btw do you know if the FBI or the center for missing and exploited children
have a similar forward to address? I get some porno spam that is truly
questionable and very objectionable.
 
I am online some 16 hours a day and manage a good number of websites.

My business domain receives 500+ emails a day, about 95% spam.

As my mail setup uses a catchall system whereby anything before the @ gets
to me i have a great deal of control in directing spam directly to the
recycle bin.

I also use a couple of other things in my fight against spam. Since I code
every subscription address I use I can tell when a business I subscribes to
is selling my address. IN this cas i do a whois lookup and forward ALL the
spam to that address to their website registration address.

I also have an email use policy which reads:
Email policy:
I offer to accept unsolicited e-mail advertisements from you in return for
your promise to pay me $1,000 each time you send mail to any of my addresses
at DotCom-Productions.com. Your future use of my address to send unsolicited
e-mail to me will constitute your acceptance of this offer. Please use:
I-accept-here-is-my-spam//@DotCom-Productions.com (// added for this forum)

Sending invoices for several thousand dollars seems to stop some of it. :-)

Reg Charie
www.DotCom-Productions.com
 
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