How to email link as plain text?

[Chris Dunning]

I'm setting up an affiliate program for a client, and he wants to have a pre-built affiliate link in the welcome email for affiliates. When I build the link in affiliate_signup.php, it's parsed as HTML and sent in the email as a link, ie like this:

Click here!

I want to show the source code instead, like:

<a href="site.com/index.php?ref=1">Click here!</a>

 

How can I stop PHP from parsing the HTML, and instead send out the raw source?

 

To stop the knee-jerk responses:

-Yes, I searched and did not find. If you searched and found, please post a link.

 

-This does refer to the affiliate program but the issue is broader and could apply to many things

 

-I'm aware that many email programs will parse the link anyway. That's unavoidable. If I send the raw source in an email and the email client parses the link, that's fine - but if I send an email to myself with an html link written out as above, I still see the source. That's what I'm looking for.

 

Thanks in advance!