Telephone Numbers

[Chris M]

I know Xara obfus...obsfoo...hides email addresses when written in plain text, but does it do the same for tel numbers?

If I create a simple text line/box and type 0123 456 789 or (01) 1234 5678, select the text and, Web Properties > Link (tab) and type tel:0123456789 or tel:012345678 are they as bot proof as an email address?

[Boy]

Acorn will probably have the answer to your question but I wonder if even email addresses are invisible to the bots. When right-clicking and selecting 'Inspect' (in Chrome), email addresses are clearly identifiable.

[Acorn]

@Chris M - the short answer is I am not sure.

The long answer is despite Xara asserting it obfuscates emails, I cannot work out how.
Give me any Xara export page and I can scrape the email addresses and tels in a blink.

Nowadays, service providers are more diligent in blocking spam emails but phishing ones will still erupt if anyone can eyeball or scape an email or phone number.
It is probably best not to overthink it.

The best answer is to pose the question directly to MagiXara. The answers will be a hoot.

Acorn

[Chris M]

@Boy: Picking on a few random sites, I too could simply click source and read the email/tel numbers. To be fair, I don't know how bots scrape a site for this info, so not sure whether that means anything or not.

@Acorn: It's not worth the trouble of contacting support. No customer has ever mentioned an increase in spam, either calls or email. Web forms, yes, they need Captcha.

I was just happily typing a mobile number into a footer and the question popped into my head, much the same as wondering if there's any nutritional value at all in the average Pop Tart.