Just what is a mailto: link, you may be asking. It is a direct link online that anyone can click to send an email directly to your email account. It is handy for friends, but also handy for hackers and spammers. Web bots crawl these links, meaning the links can appear in folks' online search results, and bad folks actually look for these links online. Many social networks ask for or require a mailto: link, including Face Book. On these sites, just use your messages account that the social network includes instead of your personal email account. If the site requires a mailto: link, I have also successfully emailed the site admin and explained why I do not use mailto: links, and they made it not required for my account at my request. For blogging and web stores, just do not use mailto: links, as they are usually not required. Well, now how in the world can folks contact you? Friends and potential customers?
Use contact forms, with a CAPTCHA. CAPTCHA is where they fill-in the characters in the box. One place to get FREE contact forms is at: Email Me Form.com [not an affiliate link]. The characters are not difficult to read in IE, Firefox, or Google Chrome. Notice on all of my blogs these are used. On this blog, it is near the top left sidebar. It is an old phone image. I have been using these contact forms for years, with no hacking troubles. If I receive a suspicious email, I just mark it as spam and delete it immediately without opening it. The only way the folks who contact me can get my reply to email address is if I email them back. Be selective about who you email and who you reply to. Never open suspicious emails, even just out of curiosity. Beware of emails addressed to multiple recipients. Please continue reading.
It is also a great idea to take your computer to a reputable repair shop asap. While there is no 100% sure way to stop all hacking, removing and not using those mailto: links certainly helps a lot. Some people will put their email address online by using something such as, at dot com, which is not a link. Well, bad folks can also find that info and then know your email address. So, this is also dangerous. Why provide an easy way for hackers to mess you up? Let's all make it DIFFICULT for them, lol! Prim blessings dear friends.
*I receive no compensation or endorsement for these opinions. I am not a computer professional*
Danice G.
2 comments:
As always, you have great advice/info Dancice!
Thanks so much!
Tanya
Awesome advise! I just found your blog and look forward to reading more. Thanks for having me. Tammy
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