Clever bots or someone getting paid?

Thesnipergecko · 5 Apr 2006 at 09:46

Recently ive been getting a lot of spam off one of my websites.

The clever thing is though my websites only use hardcoded contact forms, no where on the site does it show an email address.

So ... either someones sitting there spamming my contact forms or web bots are getting smarter?

Paul ...

Visage · 5 Apr 2006 at 09:55

Thesnipergecko said:
Recently ive been getting a lot of spam off one of my websites.

The clever thing is though my websites only use hardcoded contact forms, no where on the site does it show an email address.

So ... either someones sitting there spamming my contact forms or web bots are getting smarter?

Paul ...

Its SkyNet.......

Scam · 5 Apr 2006 at 10:30

What's the spam like? Is it a PHP form you use? Is the reply-address from your domain? I'm no expert but the guys here will be able to point you in the right direction for making it more secure.

Thesnipergecko · 5 Apr 2006 at 10:34

Scam said:
What's the spam like? Is it a PHP form you use? Is the reply-address from your domain? I'm no expert but the guys here will be able to point you in the right direction for making it more secure.

http://www.the-reviewer.co.uk/index.php?page=contact

thats the form, strange thing is its selecting all 3 options from the drop down menu and emailing different things to each one.

The email address is hardcoded into the php code so its not visible to the public even via the view source.

Paul ...

robmiller · 5 Apr 2006 at 10:51

How would a bot have to be clever to simply submit a form?

Thesnipergecko · 5 Apr 2006 at 10:52

robmiller said:
How would a bot have to be clever to simply submit a form?

The fact that its actually reading the form and changing the options on it.

Paul ...

Inquisitor · 5 Apr 2006 at 11:30

Thesnipergecko said:
The fact that its actually reading the form and changing the options on it.

Paul ...

How is it doing that? Is it actually putting coherent sentences in and changing the options such that the email actually makes sense?

By the way, very nice design you have there

Lagz · 5 Apr 2006 at 11:37

Thesnipergecko said:
The fact that its actually reading the form and changing the options on it.

Paul ...

Its actually very easy to make a piece of software that can fill in forms on websites. Things like Microsofts web COM control (you can use it with .Net languages and maybe more) do pretty much everything for you, reducing the code to something along the lines of:

find form
type "....." in form
press button called "..."

It really is pretty easy.

Thesnipergecko · 5 Apr 2006 at 11:53

Inquisitor said:
How is it doing that? Is it actually putting coherent sentences in and changing the options such that the email actually makes sense?

By the way, very nice design you have there

Thanks

Its sending emails to the 3 options in the drop down list, each email contains different text about either buying viagra or meet my horny step mom kind of emails.

Lagz said:
Its actually very easy to make a piece of software that can fill in forms on websites. Things like Microsofts web COM control (you can use it with .Net languages and maybe more) do pretty much everything for you, reducing the code to something along the lines of:

find form
type "....." in form
press button called "..."

It really is pretty easy.

Ive never experienced a bot filling out forms before, ive always thought they were a pretty secure way to fight spam on the web.

Paul ...

Tican · 5 Apr 2006 at 12:00

You need to add some form of image verification (Cant remember the proper name) it should stop it then

Inquisitor · 5 Apr 2006 at 12:00

Thesnipergecko said:
Ive never experienced a bot filling out forms before, ive always thought they were a pretty secure way to fight spam on the web.

Paul ...

Certainly not. Although they prevent your email address being picked up and spammed to death, they don't stop bots at all. One way of hindering bots is to put some sort of timeout on the contact form, so it can only be submitted once every few minutes maybe. Also, you could try and find the bots' IP adddresses, and then block those.

^ And image verification, as above. That's the most obvious one

Thesnipergecko · 5 Apr 2006 at 12:01

Inquisitor said:
Certainly not. Although they prevent your email address being picked up and spammed to death, they don't stop bots at all. One way of hindering bots is to put some sort of timeout on the contact form, so it can only be submitted once every few minutes maybe. Also, you could try and find the bots' IP adddresses, and then block those.

Yeah im looking into that, using GD libraries.

Damn spam bots

Paul ...

Scam · 5 Apr 2006 at 12:43

There's a couple of threads in the archive.

http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showthread.php?t=17499460&highlight=form

http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showthread.php?t=17430977&highlight=secure