[Remove *HONK* from guen-32*HONK*@someWhere.com when replying to sender]
----Message Content----

Regards,
Guenevive

        An alternate is to replace the @ symbol in a hyperlink with something like:

1. Look for all links with HREFs containing the protocol: mailto:
   1a. Possibly look at the text within a mailto: link.

   Look for all plain text versions of @ symbols shortly followed by a period with a domain phrase: .net .org .edu .com .mil .gov .countryCode .etc

   Look for all HTML coded substitutes for [1a & 2]:

<a href="http://www.domain.com/userID/happy/">Write</a> to me at: userID <i>at</i> hotstuff <i>dot</i> com

        Unlike the JavaScript advice found elsewhere on this page, this technique does not require a TARGET property within the A tag.
        If, perchance, spam spidering software should be so sophisticated as to even bother looking within the <a href=".....">hyperlink's text</a>, then keeping the address outside the link and replacing @ symbols and periods with words may help give further protection (or merely redundant protection along with psychological reassurance!).
        This is the index.cgi program (its idea is a program that came courtesy of: Dave Rossow) in its CGI enabled directory (directory name: happy/ in this example):

#!/usr/bin/perl
print "Location: mailto:Mr_Smith<gummy\@bear.com>\n\n";


Or else:


#!/usr/local/bin/perl
print "Location: mailto:Mrs_Smith<gummy\@bear.com>\n\n";

        Upload the perl file while in ASCII mode; otherwise, the upload may default to BINARY when in AUTO mode (which is normally used for images and audio files). Define the directory's access priveleges to exclude outsiders as either: 'chmod 755' or 'chmod 711' (whichever works for you; I use the latter one for extra reassurance, but it may not work on all servers), give index.cgi the same priveleges. The CGI directory 'happy' may reside as a sub-directory under your CGI(-BIN) directory.

You can append a subject to the email address so long as you use non-space characters anywhere following the "mailto:" phrase (such as using _underscores_ between words) in order to work in MSIE 3.x:

#!/usr/bin/perl
print "Location: mailto:My_Name<myUserID\@domain.com>?subject=Talk_to_me...\n\n";

<a href="http://www.domain.com/userID/happy/"><img src="http://www.domain.com/userID/email.gif" alt="jsmith at fish dot net" border="0"></a>
<p>

followed by your comments.

        An alternate method of protecting your email is to never even deliver it to surfers. Link to a form mailer instead that mails only to you.

        If you don't have access to a CGI capable account, then bring back the mailto: link for browsers supporting JavaScript, by hiding the address within a function:

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        mailto: Will automatically be added.

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        If you like, append       ?subject=a subject of your choice       or else a blank subject with or without       ?subject=.       Unlike the CGI example above, the JavaScript applications on this page do not need non-space characters (_underscores_) between words to work in MSIE 3.x. But at least one non-space character is needed if       ?subject=.       is included without text following it (i've used a period).
        Use any standard english keyboard character. If you want to use quotations, use apostrophes (single qoute) ' or backquotes ` only.
        Please refrain from using double-quotes "
        Please enter your email address here:

        Or better yet, on your own webpage.......
        It may be a good idea to change the JavaScript's function name, "sendANote()", to one of your own choosing. The opening and closing paranthesis immediately following the name is mandatory. Or even write your own JavaScript function. [We should be so unlucky that this little gimmick should become soooooo popular that bulk mailers catch on to it!] Let us variegate......
        Linking to this function without a target="_self" within the link may inactivate it if the page is within a frame and there is a: <base target="anything"> statement on the link- page. Similarly, even the remote JavaScript function, described in the following paragraphs, would be useless. It over rides the function's target for opening a new "compose an email message" window. Although, a: <base href=""> statement is alright.
        If it is not possible to use script (JavaScript, etc.) on a web page, etc., then it is possible to use a link to a script on a web page at another location, let's say, your homesite. The page's script would automatically compose an email note with an address and optionally a subject, only to move back within the browser's history to where you were previously. The user would be left with a note ready to write into and send back to you. The link would go something like this:
 
        Suppose you kept a file called: sendMyselfANote.html somewhere at a web location. This link's syntax would be:
 
<a href="URL" target="_self">EMAIL</a>, or alternately:
 
<a href="URL" target="_self"><img src="URL-email.gif" alt="jsmith at fish dot net" border="0"></a>
 
        It is a good idea to place your email address as: jsmith at fish dot net within the alt (alternative text) clause of the img-tag if you use an email image instead of text within this link and in case your user cannot view graphics. The file's contents would go something like this:

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        Somewhere on your pc keep this text file handy (on the desktop) for reference when filling out guestbooks:

=========start of file's contents===========

<!--CGI-->
<!--blank subject-->

<a href="http://www.domain.com/userID/cgi-bin/happy/"><img src="http://www.domain.com/userID/email.gif" alt="jsmith at fish dot net" border="0"></a>
<p>

<!--CGI-->
<!--General Comments-->

<a href="http://www.domain.com/userID/cgi-bin/new/"><img src="http://www.domain.com/userID/email.gif" alt="jsmith at fish dot net" border="0"></a>
<p>

<!--CGI-->
<!--Referred from a GuestBook-->

<a href="http://www.domain.com/userID/cgi-bin/year/"><img src="http://www.domain.com/userID/email.gif" alt="jsmith at fish dot net" border="0"></a>
<p>

<!--JavaScript-->
<!--no subject-->

<a href="URL1-sendMyselfANote.html" target="_self">EMAIL</a>

<!--JavaScript-->
<!--no subject-->

<a href="URL2-sendMyselfANote.html" target="_self"><img src="URL2-Mailbox.gif" alt="jsmith at fish period net" border="0"></a>

<!--JavaScript-->
<!--no subject-->

<a href="URL3-sendMyselfANote.html" target="_self"><img src="URL3-email.gif" alt="jsmith at fish dot net" border="0"></a>

===========end of file's contents============
 

Or try using an account at a free email Web service. Ignore the content of the account and periodically delete files without opening them if possible. The only important mail received upon posting to search engines are messages, such as: "If you want to remain on our search engines beyond the initial two week free period, you must place our banner advertisement on your posted web page." Of course, you'll get TONS of junk as well. Don't that make you feel special?

        Reading a little from there gives me an idea. Why not combine caution with aggression? Just as there are multiple kinds of snow to the Eskimo, there are many types of spam. To err by forgetting or not knowing to hide the addresses of multiple recipients to an email is the aggravating type. To then use that tempting gravy by someone down the line is spam of the opportunistic type. Spam sent from someone "out of the blue" is also of the unsolicited type, but when they go to the trouble of forging their reply-to address, it is bordering on the malicious. Even though mistaken aggravation and opportunism are related by cause and effect, they require a more pointed response, one that addresses more than mere aggravation. Next time this happens to me, I'm not going to remain passive to wait and see and respond only when someone goes ahead and sends me mail derived from that list as I did the first time it happened a few months ago. Because anger had a chance to build with each letter that came from people, many who were sincere but underinformed ---- as I was. Neither must I jump to a crusade. If being on a validly subsribed-to mailing list produces an occaisional error, then I think a prompt letter to the sender, reminding him of both the apology that maybe should be forth coming from him to all on the list, but more importantly to include a warning: "Please do not send anyone on the list unsolicited mail" is the best that I can do ---- mistakes do happen. Only if the mail-list sender lacks a satisfactory response to his error should I begin to consider getting more involved. That involvement, or the immediate response I will want to give to spam of the other two types, entails the following:

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1. If you can not do the following in aol's mail manager, then forward any spam to your work address or a friend's (with their consent) and do this there:
2. Open up the message.
3. Select "view full headers" in the mail manager.
4. Copy everything into a new note with a little polite reminder for the recipient of your note to look into the matter.
5. Look at the header. There is a list of received's that tells the chain of transference the email took to get to you. Sometimes these can be forged, particularly the ones (one or two or three) immediately adjacent to the originating sender's received: (these are known as hoppers: machines that are run by the sender and used for what purpose, I don't know --- maybe for in-company rerouting and/or preprocessing of data).
6. This step is a bit of a skill. Address each note to the domain of the received:s immediately downline from the sender and his hoppers that you feel should know that their system is being used to transfer spam, i.e.: abuse@domain.name or postmaster@domain.name. Also notify domains that the spammer might be using from them, either an account, or a forgery in his reply-to, from a recognizably large domain: msn.com, aol.com, juno.com, or is immediately adjacent to a connection service (isp), or uses the isp (sometimes in a country foreign to the sender) as a complicated series of relays to hide himself and/or get more innocent parties involved to confuse the issue, all of these discovered through the use of a trace made to the sender's domain (see below: NeoTrace). Legitimate companies across the globe may also have their domain name hijacked, or illegitimate ones may be using a relay point somewhere else. It's confusingly hard to tell sometimes.
7. NEVER deal directly with the spammer if it was not an honest mistake on the part of a mail-list administrator forgetting to hide your address! Although technically such a mistake is not spam, its occurance will lead to spam of the naive type: no hidden sender's address, and your address has just been distributed to a few potential spammers.

        Using MS-DOS's "tracert" command at the prompt can do a trace route to either an IP numeric address, or a name-server address. Shift to a MS-DOS window, then immediately type in:

tracert cnn.com


Or:


tracert 207.25.71.24

•   Whois Search Links: Search domain names, IP numeric addresses, here and abroad:

http://ww2.arin.net/whois/
American Registry for Internet Numbers
ARIN’s Whois program searches ARIN’s database to locate information on networks, autonomous system numbers (ASNs), network-related handles, and other related Points of Contact (POCs). This search tool will not provide information relating to domains, military networks (NIPRNET) or networks registered through RIPE or APNIC.

http://www.networksolutions.com/cgi-bin/whois/whois
Network Solutions
InterNIC: for domain related information.

http://www.nic.gov/whois.html
CEMT: Center for Email Technology
For US government domain names, user names (last name, first name) and e-mail addresses of registered Points of Contact.

http://www.ripe.net/db/whois.html
RIPE Network Coordination Centre: for European related information.

http://www.apnic.net/apnic-bin/whois.pl
Asia-Pacific Network Information Center: for related information.

•   Computing & Internet: Software: Internet: E-mail: Spam Software

http://www.cix.co.uk/~net-services/library/
Library of Email Software from Net Services
Get lots of e-mail offering you get-rich-quick schemes? Want to hit back? Spam Hater is free Windows software that helps you respond effectively and make spammers wish they weren't.

http://www.mcafee.com/myapps/neoworx/default.asp
NeoTrace is an advanced Internet testing and information tool that allows users to trace origins of spammers and other Net traffic, perform trace-route tests of Internet connections, identify the location of network failures and more.  

http://spamcop.net/
Offers white and black listing filteration of incoming mail, along with forwarding, polling, and retrieving. Automated email header reading with advice on suggested contacts for sending spam complaints. All this and more (discussion forums) for a measely fifty cents per megabyte of volume (averaging about $12/year).

http://www.monkeys.com/wpoison/
Wpoison is a free tool which can be used to help reduce the problem of bulk junk e-Mail on the Internet. Using CGI script, WPoison creates random e-mail addresses and Web pages that can ruin a spammer's day.

•   Free Form Mail Services:

http://www.bravenet.com/samples/emailforms.php
Uses cookies.

http://www.whiz-mail.cc/
Uses cookies and javascript and is much more than a free, form-to-email service by incorporating: data-form submission by your website-visitors.

Form to Mail Service at BNSoft devoid of advertising, but you will have to embed your email into a hidden input field within your form mailing page.

•   Form Mail Services For a Charge:

FormMail.To/You Doesn't accept free service to new members anymore due to abuse by some of its members for the purposes of spamming, but is offering paid service for $1 a month. This service has the added convenience of merely requiring you to point your corespondents to FormMail.To/You's form mailers existing on their servers. So, you won't have control over the look and feel of the form page, but the URL of the link required to point to the form mailer will possibly be shorter than if you had used another service that might have required the form to be located within your website. This is a convenience whenever leaving links to your form mailer within email messages (to newsgroups, etc.).

Professional Mail Forming for busineses who need that extra look and feel with service they can depend on for $15 a month.

•   Some Interesting Ideas at Half Bakery:

http://www.halfbakery.com/idea/Spamproof_20email
Read these, or, get an account there to post some of your own.

•   Anti-Spam Resources at: http://www.mcafee.com/myapps/neoworx/default.asp

Does my NICErsPRO have a Built-IN Automatic UseNet NewsGroup address Extractor?

YES - YOU get the UseNet Newsgroup Extractor and, by using the NICErsPRO cloaking features described below, you should be able to get to mail to this flame - happy anti - commercial oldest and most "out - of - touch" section of the Internet with the greatest possible degree of success! Click here to order!

Does my NICErsPRO's WWW Extractor allow me to strip from Classified Web Sites? from ISP member Web Sites? from Guest Books at Web Sites?

YES - and you'll find that these are the *richest* sources of email addresses on the WWW, where YOU GET tremendous savings of your precious and valuable time, maximizing your productivity, increasing your targeting, reducing your flames, increasing your positive response rates, increasing your sales, putting more money into your pocket! Click here to order!

Does my NICErsPRO have the BEST SOFTWARE-based CLOAKING available thru ECD, the only cloaking program in the world written by the FATHER of SOFTWARE CLOAKING?

YES - YOU GET YOUR NICErsPRO with ECD, the Email Cloaking Device, which will, at your discretion, cloak your authenticated sender, your personal domain, your machine hops, and your MESSAGE ID -- all designed by the FATHER of SOFTWARE CLOAKING - dramatically reducing your exposure to flames, ISP account disconnections, which will in turn lead to dramatic time savings, more sales and more income, as well as giving you the opportunity to save LITERALLY THOUSANDS of dollars in direct - email - friendly ISP costs which typically cost hundreds of dollars per month! Click here to order!

The list goes on and on. Extract using: GENERIC and SPECIFIC text Extractors and from: DejaNews, the folders of popular Internet mail clients such as EUDORA and PEGASUS, and AOL's: Member Directory, Message Boards, Chats, and Classified Ads.

Let us pray for deliverance.......[and get kicking!]

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Friday, 23 May 2003 10:19:16 Pacific Daylight Time