Using email addresses as member names

Spambots are programs that scan web pages for hyperlinks and email addresses, often using subtle algorithms in their search. These malicious programs collect the addresses they find on a page, and then follow each hyperlink they find on it to a new page and repeat the process. Because these programs are very fast, they can cover, however randomly, a lot of webpages in a very short time. The email addresses these programs harvest so diligently may be sold to others many times over, or the spambot program itself may siimply generate SPAM to the addresses and send it out automatically.

For this reason, publicly posting your Email address anywhere on the Web should be avoided, and BC does not allow, consequently, members to use an Email address as a Member name.

Members who have inadvertantly used their address as a name may PM Grinler and provide a substitute name.

Regards,
John

Edited by jgweed, 26 April 2005 - 01:38 PM.

Well done jg.

I suggest that this be pinned.

I thought that members should understand the possible dangers of using addresses as names, Scarlett. either here at BC or elsewhere on the Web.
Cheers,
John

Yes, everyone should be made aware of the consequences of publicly posting thier e-mail addy's.

On a similar, related subject.
There is no way, that I would use my real name eiether.

Let's pin this baby.
Where though? Here or maybe even Introductions.

As an added suggestion. I wonder if it would be possible for this info. be placed on the new members registration page???

Edited by scarlett, 26 April 2005 - 01:39 PM.

Bump

Hello All

It has come to our attention that there are many of you using an e-mail address as a member name.

Please refer to jgweed's initial post above, for an informative explanation on why it is not a good idea at all to do so.

Thank You and Welcome to Bleeping Computer


~ Scarlett - Forum Mod

For those who wish to post their email addys in blogs and other forums that allow them (not here) here is a tip that will thwart the spambots:

From Kim Komando's daily tip:
Hide' your e-mail address

Today's Cool Site features a handy little tool. It will turn your e-mail address into an image file.

Just type in your user name, select your e-mail provider and click Generate. You'll get a picture that displays your address. It also generates a link to the address.

I know some of you may be scratching your head, saying, "Why would I want a picture of my e-mail address?" The answer can be summed up in one word: spam.

When you post something in a blog or a forum, use the image instead of text. Spammers use automated programs to scour the Web for e-mail addresses. The software can't read image files. But, people who want to contact you will be able to read it.

http://services.nexodyne.com/email/

If you use this service, they request that you include a link to this page wherever you use the e-mail image, so that others can get their own.
The correct link to this page is:
http://services.nexodyne.com/email/

If you wish to accomplish this yourself:

JohnH at the wiredradio forum offers the following suggestion:
Even better (my opinion) -

Open MS Paint (it comes with every version of Windows)

Choose the "text" selection (The "A" on the toolbar).

Type in your email address.

"Save as" a "jpg" file (call it "yournameemai.jpg", for example"), making it a little larger than your typed email address.

Upload it to someplace like www.imageshack.com, an image hosting site, and you can use it anywhere, too.

Like this:

(image of his sig hosted at imageshack.com)

(Not a real email address, by the way.)

Now you aren't beholden to that website, and you can always upload the image to another image hosting site if Imageshack goes away.
http://www.johnmanzo.tv/cgi-bin/board/ikon...t=ST;f=2;t=2777

Edited by Enthusiast, 25 January 2006 - 01:30 AM.

Great site Enthusiast.

I like how it can make an image for almost any e-mail address.

Thanks. I use it create my new e-mail sig picture.

Before reading this post, there was a Rule that was a little confusing - thanks!

Members can not be email addresses. This rule is in place to protect you from spam bots who will pick up your email address and spam you.


The initial wording leaves the meaning open - especially for international audiences.

Revised: Member names can not be the same as your email address.

This is the fourth bullet point from the bottom.


Perhaps there is a better spot to post this but I am still learning the boards.


I also wondered how long we are able to edit our posts?

 

Edited by ksky10081, 20 August 2009 - 03:24 PM.

I remember an early version of phpBB (2.0 I think) that would put a user's e-mail address (as a mailto link) under every post.

I have a question in regards to using an image file for posting to websites, as ws mentioned by Enthusiast.

Can an image file be used to "sign in" to a website that one is a member of ?

Edited by justaseeker, 24 October 2010 - 07:12 AM.

I know I'm totally necro'ing this thread, but....

 

When you post something in a blog or a forum, use the image instead of text. Spammers use automated programs to scour the Web for e-mail addresses. The software can't read image files. But, people who want to contact you will be able to read it.

 

This is no longer true. Software can now read images, so this method no longer works to prevent spam.

 

 

I have a question in regards to using an image file for posting to websites, as ws mentioned by Enthusiast.

Can an image file be used to "sign in" to a website that one is a member of ?

 

No, that is not possible at this time. Sign in forms are text fields. They cannot take an image. Some websites can take an image in certain text fields, if the website was designed with a rich text editor (most blog softare allows this for example), but your sign in forms are still designed only for text.

Edited by Speeddymon, 09 June 2019 - 01:50 PM.

I know I'm totally necro'ing this thread, but....

 

When you post something in a blog or a forum, use the image instead of text. Spammers use automated programs to scour the Web for e-mail addresses. The software can't read image files. But, people who want to contact you will be able to read it.

 

This is no longer true. Software can now read images, so this method no longer works to prevent spam.

 

 

That's not even close to entirely true.  The image has to be reasonably legible and the format such that it can be OCR-ed, which very few people "skimming for e-mail addresses" would even bother to do, given that there are myriad straight text options that exist out there.  Spammers go for ease.

 

Try something like either of these two, in whatever size you like, and see how often the average OCR software ever gets anything of use, let alone an actual usable e-mail address.

 

This one should be a cinch, and any human can easily read it, but most OCR engines can't:

 

 

while this variant is still reasonably easy for human beings to make out, but very difficult to impossible for an OCR engine to extract anything from:

 

 

 

Spammers and phishers go for easy pickings because that's all that's necessary to cull massive numbers of e-mail addresses.  They're not bending over backwards to OCR images.

I beg to disagree with some of your statements.

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image_spam

 

The process demonstrated above wherein spammers sent emails with images instead of text was used for a bit in the mid 2000's, and prompted researchers to invent ways to read the the images programmatically so that spam filters could block those emails as well. This is demonstrated in the fact that researchers were able to solve captcha images with machine learning as documented below.

 

https://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/gadgets-and-tech/news/captcha-puzzles-recaptcha-solve-problems-vicarious-bots-artificial-intelligence-a8029401.html

 

Now, as for whether spammers are employing machine learning and pattern recognition to identify emails with their scraper bots?

I'll admit my statement "this method no longer works to prevent spam." was a bit overgeneralized, and I can't say for sure that they are, but I definitely would put it in the realm of possibility, rather than flat out dismissing it as you have done.

 

Spam filters have gotten better in the past 13 years since the post by Enthusiast, and users have gotten more aware of what not to post so openly, making it harder on spammers to find emails via web page scraping, so spammers have resorted to all sorts of new tricks, and I wouldn't put it past them to employ these technologies.

I wish i knew this when i was 12 and made my Microsoft account my account@gmail name.. Shame on microsoft for allowing that to begin with from kids who later became wise to how terrible that is to do..

If anyone isnt sure why it's bad, ask, and i'll explain it..

LOL

If it was true in 2005, I'm sure it's still true in 2024.

Thank heavens for necroposts!

Just kidding