Spam is unsolicited email - unwanted email that is not requested by the recipient. Websites are commonly scanned by robot programs that harvest email addresses so that spam can be sent to them. Personally I have recieved a number of "stock" emails, "Santa Barbara Bank & Trust" emails, PAYPAL or Ebay emails etc.  Recently I have seen a number of increased emails with PDF attachments.  A number of techniques are being used to prevent email addresses from being harvested.

"Encoding your email address into special values called character entities which represent each character is one method. Javascript programs have been written that will convert an email address to its encoded value (see the links below). You will then copy and paste the encoded email address after the "mailto:" part of the link. For example, this is an encoded link for Ohlone's webmaster email account (extra line breaks have been placed in the code below so the width of the page is not broken - make sure the encoded parts you use are all on one line in your web page):

<a href="mailto:&#119;&#101;&#098;&#109;&#097;&#115;&#116;
&#101;&#114;&#064;&#111;&#104;&#108;&#111;&#110;&#101;
&#046;&#099;&#099;&#046;&#099;&#097;&#046;&#117;&#115;">
&#119;&#101;&#098;&#109;&#097;&#115;&#116;&#101;&#114;&#064;
&#111;&#104;&#108;&#111;&#110;&#101;&#046;&#099;&#099;&#046;
&#099;&#097;&#046;&#117;&#115;</a>

There is no guarantee, however, that encoding your email address will prevent spam. Robots can be created that are smart enough to decode the encoded address. " -- http://www.ohlone.cc.ca.us/org/webcenter/emailencoding.html

1. Online Tools to Encode Your Email Address

• Ohlone's Email Encoder (online tool) - used with written permission from West Bay Web
• West Bay Web - Email Encoder (online tool) - "This form will allow you to encode your e-mail address through the use of Character Entities, transforming your ascii email address into its equivalent decimal entity. Simply enter your regular e-mail address in the first text box, click the encode button, and then highlight and copy the resulting code produced in the second text box. This encoded e-mail address can be read and translated back into its original ascii text by almost any web browser without any further action on your part. Just replace all instances of your e-mail address on your pages with the code, and you won't have to worry about spam lists."
• mailto Encoder (online tool) - "The HTML Encoder is a service of SiteUp Networks. The Encoder will format your E-mail address in a way that IS NOT readable by any E-mail extractor or search engine. The Encoder is only provided as a way to prevent HTML E-mail harvesters from getting your address from your web pages. If you do not have a web site, the Encoder will not be useful to you."

2. Tools that use javascript to encode:

Just drop this code into your web's html code where you want the mail to be listed and change the name after mailto: in the code and the domain name from sbcglobal.net to yourdomainname.com

 <script language="JavaScript">
<!-- Begin
document.write('<a href=\"mailto:ozonko'+ '@' +
'sbcglobal.net\">');
document.write('Click here to email Lou</a>');
// End -->
</script>

3. Using an email FORM -- can prevent this spamming issue because visitors to your site must fill out a contact form to contact you.  Try, contactforms.com or my personal favorite "response-o-matic.com".