spamblock

spamblock
 /spam'blok/, n.

   [poss. by analogy to sunblock] Text inserted in an email address to
   render it invalid and thus useless to spammers. For example, the
   address <[email protected]> might be transformed to
   <[email protected]>. Adding spamblock to an address is often
   referred to as munging it (see {munge}). This evasion tactic depends
   on the fact that most spammers collect names with some sort of
   {address harvester} on volumes too high to de-mung by hand, but
   individual humans reading an email message can readily spot and remove
   a spamblock in the From address.

   Note: This is not actually a very effective tactic, and may already be
   passing out of use in early 1999 after about two years of life. In
   both mail and news, it's essentially impossible to keep a smart
   address harvester from mining out the addresses in the message header
   and trace lines. Therefore the only people who can be protected are
   third parties mentioned by email address in the message -- not a
   common enough case to interest spammers.