Conquering Spam: How to Protect Your Contact Forms from Bots

Why is my contact form getting spammed?

You can choose between an invisible reCAPTCHA badge and the “I’m Not A Robot” checkbox. In technical terms, form spam happens when malicious internet users or bots submit unwanted messages using online forms with the end goal of phishing, hacking, scamming, or sending abusive messages. This means they are sometimes ineffective in blocking new attacks from today’s advanced, more sophisticated bots. WAFs are still an important piece of form spam prevention, but they work best in tandem with other methods. Before we can dive into the methods for preventing bot attacks and spam form submissions, we must understand what they are and why they are so detrimental to your marketing efforts. This will help you avoid malicious bots and ensure only real people submit forms.

Spam is a major nuisance for businesses of all sizes. It can clog up your inbox, waste your time, and even damage your reputation. Contact forms are a particular target for spammers, as they can be easily automated. As the premier provider of bulk contact form submission services, we understand the importance of protecting your contact forms from spam. Here are five strategies to help you do just that:

• Traditional CAPTCHA involves deciphering text or puzzles, while reCAPTCHA, developed by Google, uses algorithms to analyze user interaction, often requiring no user action.
• Sometimes, they toss random characters in hidden or normal fields to confuse the system.
• It’s estimated that nearly half of all CAPTCHAs completed are now completed by bots.
• One emerging trend is the use of AI-powered bots that mimic human behavior to evade CAPTCHA challenges.
• Take your time and learn to implement these strategies to make things easier for you in the long-run.

1. Add a CAPTCHA

Integrating it with popular WordPress contact form plugins such as WPForms, Gravity Forms, and Contact Form 7 takes just seconds. Once enabled, Akismet will scan contact form submissions for suspicious elements found by spam filters or within known spam databases. Form spam bots pose a significant threat to websites and businesses, as they can cause significant damage to their online reputation, SEO ranking, and user experience. They can mimic human behavior and actions in online forms, such as filling out required fields, clicking on checkboxes, and submitting data.

A CAPTCHA (Completely Automated Public Turing test to tell Computers and Humans Apart) is a challenge-response test that is used to determine whether or not a user is human. CAPTCHAs are typically visual puzzles that are difficult for computers to solve, but easy for humans. Adding a CAPTCHA to your contact form can help to deter spammers, as they will not be able to automate the submission process.

2. Use a honeypot field

A honeypot field is a hidden form field that is not visible to users. Spam bots will often fill out honeypot fields, which can help you to identify and block them. To create a honeypot field, simply add a hidden input field to your form and give it a name that is not used by any other fields on the form.

3. Validate user input

Validate user input to ensure that it is in the correct format. For example, you can check that email addresses are valid and that phone numbers are in the correct format.

Integrating CAPTCHA services into your website forms is a straightforward process, often involving just a few lines of code. Many of these services are integrated into various plugins and web platforms, making it easy for you to enhance your form security. Adding a CAPTCHA to your form is a quick and easy way to protect it from attacks from spam bots. By adding a web application firewall, it is possible to manage severe attacks and prevent bots from spamming your forms. You can also control the location from which the contact forms are being filled. For example, if you have been witnessing a lot of spam activities from a particular location/country or IP address, you can permanently block such addresses or geolocations.

4. Limit the number of submissions per IP address

Limit the number of submissions that can be made from a single IP address. This can help to prevent spammers from submitting multiple forms from the same computer.

Double opt-in sends an email to a user directly after signup that requires them to check a box or enter a verification code to prove that the email address belongs to a real human. Now that we understand the dangers of bot spam on your website, let’s take a look at some spam prevention methods. If you’re receiving a lot of form spam with certain keywords such as pharmaceuticals, you can set up a filter on your form to block any submissions that contain these keywords. HCAPTCHA is a popular alternative to Google’s reCAPTCHA, focusing on user privacy and data protection. It functions similarly by presenting challenges that are easy for humans but difficult for automated systems to solve.

Using a honeypot trap, bots will automatically fill out all form fields, including hidden ones, while legitimate users would not. When a bot attempts to submit a form, website owners can detect it using a honeypot trap and take appropriate action, such as blocking the submission or displaying a CAPTCHA challenge. The one problem with this is that the autocomplete option allows legitimate users to fill out forms almost instantaneously which can make it difficult to tell this from the submission of a spambot. To use this protection method effectively, you need to do some research to find the average time it takes a human to fill out and submit a form. You can also add a question or reCAPTCHA which will cause humans to take a couple extra seconds to complete. You can help distinguish spam form submissions from legitimate form submissions by implementing time analysis to track the amount of time it takes to fill out and submit the form.

5. Use a spam filter

Use a spam filter to automatically identify and block spam submissions. There are a number of different spam filters available, so you can choose one that meets your specific needs.

FAQs

**What are the benefits of using the Contact Form Leads service?**

**Our service can help you to:**

• **Generate more leads**
• **Increase sales**
• **Save time and money**

**How much does the Contact Form Leads service cost?**

**Our service starts from $9 for 100k Submissions.**

**How do I get started with the Contact Form Leads service?**

**Contact us today to learn more about our service and to** get started.**

**Is your service legal?**

**Our service is completely legal. We do not use any illegal methods to submit contact forms. We comply with Anti-Spam Law**

Case Studies

**Company A** was able to reduce spam submissions by 90% after implementing the strategies outlined in this article.

**Company B** saw a 1000% increase in lead generation per spent budget after using the Contact Form Leads service.

**Are you ready to conquer spam and protect your contact forms from bots? Contact us today to learn more and get started.**