They do this by using a spambot program which searches for likely looking combinations of letters. Since email addresses have to have an @ symbol, often they will look for this character and grab the text on either side, in the hope that it will be a valid email address.

A common way of getting around this to replace the ‘.’ and ‘@’ with ‘dot’ and ‘at’, or by putting in some extra text which will be obvious to a human reader, but will render it unusable for a spambot. For example, with ‘nameREMOVE@domain.com’, the ‘REMOVE’ text should be deleted.

Images can also be used to safely display the email address. This technique involves creating a graphic with the desired email address displayed, and saving it as a .gif or .jpg file. Though this can look effective, it does mean the address won’t be clickable.

Though they do work, none of these methods are especially professional solutions. Here are some quick alternatives…

Using CSS

Css can be employed to display the email address backwards in the code, but forwards on the page itself. Unfortunately, this neat solution doesn’t work in older browsers.

HTML:

<div class=”backwards”>email@address.com</span>

CSS:

.backwards { unicode-bidi:bidi-override; direction: rtl; }

Using Javascript

This technqiue breaks up the code with Javascript, so although it will display properly on the page it is hidden from spambots. This is probably the most common method of email obfuscation, but I’m not sure how effective it is these days, as newer spambots seem to trawl through Javascript as well.

<script language=”javascript”>
var user = “name”;
var domain = “domain.com”;
var display = user + “@” + domain;
document.write(”<a hr” + “ef=m” + “ai” + “lto:” + user + “@” + domain + “>” + display + “</a>”);
</script>

Using Enkoder

Enkoder is a handy tool which creates some crazy encrypted Javascript. The method is basically the same as above, but the code generated is far more unreadable. It also has options for editing the subject line and link title for your email anchor.

Although no method is 100% effective against the spammers, these methods should at least make things as difficult as possible.

In addition, it also gives you the x and y mouse coordinates, which is very useful for checking that things line up properly. The program is very small and unobtrusive, it sits in the systray until you double-click the icon to pick it up. Then it will follow your cursor around, until you double-click its icon in the systray again to put it back.

Unfortunately it doesn’t have hex codes set to appear by default, so when you first install the program, you will need to right-click it’s icon, Select ‘Properties’ and tick ‘Show hex values’. You can then hover over your desired colour, and press Ctrl + C to copy its hex code to your clipboard.

A similar program is Pixie, though I like it less as it remains static in the centre of the screen. This means you have to switch in and out of it, unlike Eyedropper which feels more natural as follows the cursor, making it easier to continue your work without needing to make a switch. Both these programs are small, and free (though I don’t think they are available for the Mac).

Download Eyedropper – Download Pixie

It’s very handy for sites such as Stock Xchng (royalty free stock photos), Youtube, or the New York Times. Or really any site which tries to glean personal information for no real reason.

They also have a ‘disposable email’ feature for creating temporary email address. This enables you to sign up to sites you know will send you spam, without divulging your personal email address.