[LINK] Email Obfuscation Helps Spammers: Google returns 27 million results for "* at * dot com"

[Adam Todd]

This is why I have a graphic I use with my email 
address embedded in it.  Yes it has colours, and 
wavy lines and markers to prevent it being 
"decoded" except by sight, although I have to 
admit, I've been working on software to 
"visualise" characters in the same way that a 
human does and so far all those "enter the code 
in the graphic below" things have been decoded without a hitch.

Knowing how to decode by visualization, has 
enabled me to encode by visualization :)

I can't say much more right now, the applications 
of this kind of technology are 
incredible!  Creating human only readable 
documents that can not be copied electronically 
(including by scanner unless you scan at 4800 dpi or above!)



At 02:23 PM 17/06/2007, Kim Holburn wrote:
>http://typewriting.org/2006/06/19/Email_Obfuscation_Helps_Spammers/
>
>>Email Obfuscation Helps Spammers
>>
>>Some people think email obfuscation is a good way to fight spam,
>>that it's somehow more difficult for spammers to understand
>>"account at domain dot com" or "account&64;domain.com" than
>>"account at domain.com". These people are wrong. They will often
>>readily admit that they don’t think email obfuscation will stop all
>>spam, but it still makes them feel like they’re doing something in
>>the war on drugs terrorism spam. Here's what they're doing: in
>>addition to making email more difficult for legitimate uses,
>>they're actually making it easier for spammers.
>>
>>Google returns 27 million results for "* at * dot com". That's 27
>>million email addresses waiting to be spammed. Google doesn’t allow
>>you to search for the "@" sign, so that’s 27 million email
>>addresses that wouldn’t be available on Google if they were not
>>obfuscated. Email obfuscation not only doesn’t hurt spammers — it
>>actually helps them. Where it doesn’t make it easier, it acts as a
>>placebo, making people feel more comfortable and complacent living
>>in a world of spam. Like everything else, if you don’t want your
>>email address publicly-available, don’t put it on the public web.
>>But if we want to be able to publish email addresses on the web, we
>>can’t continue this half-hearted war on spam, hiding under our beds
>>of obfuscation and hoping they won’t find us.
>>Posted by Scott Reynen on Jun 19, 2006 — 4:08 pm | 21 comments |
>>Tags: email spam
>
>
>--
>Kim Holburn
>IT Network & Security Consultant
>Ph: +39 06 855 4294  M: +39 3494957443
>mailto:kim at holburn.net  aim://kimholburn
>skype://kholburn - PGP Public Key on request
>
>Democracy imposed from without is the severest form of tyranny.
>                           -- Lloyd Biggle, Jr. Analog, Apr 1961
>
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