A slashdot poster writes:
Rules of not getting spammed.
1. Don't put your email address on the web.
2. Don't pick a name that will be targeted by a dictionary or brute force spam attack:
e.g. "ggh@hotmail" will get spammed.
"lovetocook@hotmail" will get spammed.
"arh6yypolk11j@hotmail" will not get spammed. (well, it will now that it's on Slashdot)
As an experiment, I created a test email address at hotmail that was 20 random characters long. Every once in a while I would send it emails, or send emails from it to myself just to keep it alive.
Never once in several months did I receive any spam.
This is an interesting thought. Since we have address books to help us remember email addresses, maybe we should use more random-looking email addresses. We should already be used to this, because phone numbers aren't easy to remember.
If you want to put your email address on your web site, you really ought to turn it into a graphic, so it is not machine readable.
Posted by Doug Sauder at July 22, 2002 11:59 AM