Dated emails support2006@host.com can be better than filters.

[krystof]

I am not a host. I have a good host but he tells me he is being over-run with spam, even though he has powerful filters. Here is my solution.

Better to date-stamp every vulnerable email address and change periodically. I.e., support2006a@host.com. Otherwise:

a) Bounce with "no such address" anything with "******" in title, heh. I mean, very obvious stuff.
b) All other mail to the latest and next-latest addresses is accepted. Anything to an older address goes to an autoreply, which advises them to visit the website for the new address. Spammers never read replies of course.
c) Website uses javascript for email, to reduce visibility to robots.

How often do you change the email? As often as you need. Use server-site SSI or PHP of course to update the email anywhere it appears on your site, from one file.

[alwaysweb]

If a customer adds a 'previous' support2005b... email to his address book, then you deactivate that email and just make it an autoresponder, you are making it much more difficult for the user to get the support they need... They have to visit the site, find the support page, find the new email (figure out why the other didn't work) and send their ticket again. I can see this causing unneeded client frustration just because you don't want to filter through some spam?!

Why not turn on SpamAssassin and filter things out, then weekly go through it? SA along with RBL filtering such as spamcop/ordb have done wonders for us.

[brianoz]

I think a lot of spam comes from harvesting email addresses off websites.

What you can do to make this far less likely is to encode the mail address in a variety of ways - in JavaScript, by encoding the letters as #NN;, or in a number of other ways. To find some JavaScript encodes, search for "encode mailto address" in Google.

[krystof]

Thank you for your opinions, fellas!

I am not a primary host. With my last 2 hosts, I repeatedly had problems with my support requests being "caught in a spam filter." They are using advanced filters like "Spam assassin" but it can get overwhelmed.

My idea of "dating" the email address does not necessarily cause inconvenience. For example, you can mention the latest address right in the autoreplies. (Spammers do not read replies.)

However, I see that "date-coding" is probably not appropriate for support addresses. (Although I do find it very good for "sales" and other situations.)

For support, I would guess that there are better ways which also do not depend on a complicated spam filter. For example:

1. Never use the address "support@" or "webmaster@" or "billing@". Spammers use software that will automatically guess that these addresses are active.
2. Do not publish your "support" address. Notify customers after they buy an account, and also use the cPanel "support request" or equivalent feature.
3. Enable filter to receive ALL support-request emails from domains used by customers. And to bounce (or auto-reply to) ALL requests not from domains used by customers. (If you get spam from a rogue customer or ex-customer, this will quickly be evident and you just turn off the domain.)
4. To make sure you are accessible, also install a "form" on your website for support requests.

[GnomeyNewt]

A lot of your ideas do not make it easy on your customers to get help from you, especially if you change your support e-mail address. Spam is part of doing bussiness on the Internet. There are a lot of scripts/software you can install serverwide or on your computer system to help filter your spam, the hard part is finding one that works for you. I have found over the past 5 years, that spam will get to your help desk no matter what you do -- just delete it and move on to helping your customers. But certainly do not make your clients have to work to contact you.

How many spam messages are they getting that they have to restrict the way their clients contact them? On average 3-4 spam land in any department per hour. Sometimes more sometimes less. Working in the abuse department, we got the most spam than any departments combined -- sort of funny.

[Gaffa]

i use MSN messenger and currently I recieve alot of spam mail because some people from my list have added their e-mails to mail lists which then farwards adverts etc onto all of their contacts.