Message Board

Newbie/Basic Questions

Robot Forms

Author: K.Elston (24 Oct 12 11:43am)

Hi - I'm sort of a newbie, especially when it comes to dealing with Spambots. I am running into a problem with some sites I have set up. They all have several basic contact forms with a javascript or php validation (but not a honeypot yet), and the recipients of the form have been receiving spam forms and empty forms, sometimes twice each hour. Even when I take down site down temporarily, the spam seems to continue. Would using a honeypot technique stop the spam, or could these spambots capture email addresses?

Re: Robot Forms

Author: H.User1325 (24 Oct 12 12:48pm)

I would suggest adding http:BL to your forms. I did and have not received any spam comments sense. After receiving 1 or 2 403 errors the spammers took me off their list.

You will find several plug-an'-chug code samples here or you can quickly write a simple function in php if you want to write your own code. The http:BL process is well documented.

No, adding honey pots to your sites, and/or adding QuickLinks won't stop any spam to your, site per say. It will add information to the database improving the web for us all.

I too noticed that the spam continued after updating my comment programs. It seems that some of the spammer sites fill-in a cashed copy of input pages instead of requesting the page. The do update their cash after a week or so. I just changed the name of the form processing program so they would get a 404.

Lou

Re: Robot Forms

Author: K.Elston (24 Oct 12 1:37pm)

Hi Lou

Excellent suggestions; I believe that is the fix for the form tonight. I am pretty sure they are using a cached copy of the form. I will change try changing the name and plugging in http:BL to the new form, thanks so much the help!