Use JavaScript to scare spam bots away from your mailto links.

Spammers are sneaky.

They've developed sophisticated mailbots that crawl the Web looking for links to unsuspecting email addresses. The bots collect these addresses and use them to advertise their pyramid schemes, porn sites, and more. That's why we sometimes recommend that you scramble your email address when you post it on message boards or on your website. Even if you scramble the address, sometimes mailbots can find your address in the HTML link.

Thanks to Al from Palm Harbor, Florida, for suggesting the Anti-Spam Script Maker.

Get your JavaScript
  1. Open Anti-Spam Script Maker (it should be stored in your programs folder)
  2. Type in your user name (i.e. megan).
  3. Type in your domain name (i.e. @techtv.com).
  4. Type the text or graphic that you want to link in the box that says Text.
  5. Click Make.
  6. Copy and paste the script onto your webpage.


The JavaScript creates a link that users can click to email you, just like a mailto link. Unlike a mailto link, bots can not pick up your email address.

Download the Anti-Spam Script Maker



Here's what my Anti-Spam JavaScript looks like:

<script language=javascript>

<!--
// This Script was made with ASS Maker 3.0 (c)2000-2001 A.Madeira
// http://www.assmaker.homestead.com
var link = "Please don't send me spam.";
var tag1 = "mail";
var tag2 = "to:";
var email1 = "%20megan";
var email2 = "techtv.com";
var email3 = ".";
var subject = "";
var cc = "";
var bcc = "";
var body = "";
document.write("<a h" + "ref=" + tag1 + tag2 + email1 + "@" + email2 + email3 + "?cc=" + cc + "&bcc=" + bcc + "&subject=" + escape(subject) + "&body=" + escape(body) + ">" + link + " </a >")
//-- >

</script >