Contact Form Spam

JamesU2005 · 8 Mar 2009 at 16:15

What methods do you use to stop Contact Form Spam?

Do you have any code examples I could use?

Cheers,

tsinc80697 · 8 Mar 2009 at 16:24

Just add another input field which has something like :

What colour is the sky?

If the answer is "blue" or "BLUE" (or you could convert the input to upper/lowercase) then carry on with the form, if its not the correct answer then just echo out an error message and highlight the field.

Other methods are simple maths questions like "What is one + two" or "is ice hot or cold" etc
You can use captcha but it causes more problems than you already have!

JamesU2005 · 8 Mar 2009 at 16:40

tsinc80697 said:
Just add another input field which has something like :

What colour is the sky?

If the answer is "blue" or "BLUE" (or you could convert the input to upper/lowercase) then carry on with the form, if its not the correct answer then just echo out an error message and highlight the field.

Other methods are simple maths questions like "What is one + two" or "is ice hot or cold" etc
You can use captcha but it causes more problems than you already have!

Yes I have seen these examples but they are not visualy appealing.

Any other options?

tsinc80697 · 8 Mar 2009 at 17:21

So youre not willing to add another input field with a simple question to stop bots?

Another option is adding an extra field, styling it with css to "visibility: hidden;". No users will see it but bots will see it. When you are getting the post info check if it is empty. If it has something in it then its a bot so post error message?

unwashed potato! · 8 Mar 2009 at 18:43

tsinc80697 said:
So youre not willing to add another input field with a simple question to stop bots?

Another option is adding an extra field, styling it with css to "visibility: hidden;". No users will see it but bots will see it. When you are getting the post info check if it is empty. If it has something in it then its a bot so post error message?

i hate it and always prefer to not use any extra fields as this could confuse the customers. captcha is kind of accepted these days but i still prefer not to if possible.

op: do you get a lot of typical spam, ie viagra? you could check the message against an array or words to see if any are in it, if so don't send. always let the user know if the message hasn't sent even if it may help the spam people as you could end up stopping a real customer getting a message through because the mention a forbidden word. ie they could ask for a large order then say "p.s. there is a comment on your blog selling viagra" this would not get through and would be bad.

hiding an input field is ok but people can turn css off and end up seeing the field and filing it out, so imo not a good idea.

ah got food will post back any other ideas have heard of/used when finished.

Inquisitor · 8 Mar 2009 at 18:50

Could always use Akismet. Works perfectly for me.

tsinc80697 · 8 Mar 2009 at 18:53

Hidden input field that has a question then?
If someone turns off CSS then the field will be visible so check if the field is empty or the correct answer?

So everyone with CSS on will fill out the form and leave the question blank, people with CSS off will fill in that hidden form with "hot" (whatever the correct answer is) and bots will fill in the form with something other than "hot".

Its 1 extra field for people without CSS, not many, does not force your average user to have to answer a silly question and stops bots all in one. Can't stand captcha myself, can't read the thing half the time!

Inquisitor said:
Could always use Akismet. Works perfectly for me.

Is that wordpress/plugin only or is there a stand-alone version?

Inquisitor · 8 Mar 2009 at 19:07

tsinc80697 said:
Is that wordpress/plugin only or is there a stand-alone version?

It's a web service that has APIs in many different languages

http://akismet.com/development/