Re: Modern best practice for putting a contact email on the web
On Mon, 5 Apr 2021 14:49:15 -0400
Celejar <celejar@gmail.com> wrote:
> On Mon, 5 Apr 2021 14:12:07 -0400
> Dan Ritter <dsr@randomstring.org> wrote:
>
> > Celejar wrote:
> > > Hi,
> > >
> > > What's the recommended modern best practice for putting a contact
> > > email address on the web while avoiding having it scraped by spam
> > > / fraud bots?
> >
> > Assume that every address will be hit by spammers and scammers.
> > Put in appropriate antispam and antimalware precautions.
>
> Okay, but why isn't trying to limit spammers getting hold of an
> address a logical part of a defense in depth strategy?
It is, but if you are reachable then a human can enter your address on
a list. Or, as you suggest, OCR will eventually find it.
>
> > Train your people to recognize spam and scams.
>
> I'm talking about a small hobby project that I run in my spare time. I
> just want to reduce spam to an address that I may put up to allow
> people to reach me.
>
>
Unfortunately, there's nothing to beat running your own mail server,
which is not particularly high-maintenance after setup. The address at
the top of this email was created nearly 23 years ago, and has been used
widely around the Net, including several Usenet groups. I get between
one and four spams a day in my inbox. As it happens, I put a new CIDR
group on my blacklist today, for the first time in perhaps a year.
The next best method is a new free mailbox, with collection piped
through the anti-spam software of your choice. But I tried spamassassin
some years ago, and decided I couldn't spare the time that staying
ahead in the arms race was costing me. Maybe the maintainers have made
better algorithms since then.
--
Joe
Reply to: