prevent spam through contact form

By JanWSOS
Published 16th April 2011 | Last comment 27th December 2011
Comments
I usually use recaptcha but they're getting harder to read for humans so I'm thinking of ditching it for a simple solution like fourth monkey outlined. I read somewhere you could record the time the contact page loaded and compare it to the time the page was submitted and if it's less than 5 seconds (or whatever you set the threshold to) then it must be a spam bot as the form couldn't be filled out in less than 5 seconds by a human.

Capthca's are so hard to solve sometimes, it is getting pretty ridiculous. I really think that sounds like a pretty full proof tactic outlined above, until the spammers find out that it takes people 25 seconds to fill out the form and then they will adjust.

Fun123

The logic captchas are much more user-friendly.

I've often wondered whether some of the visual ones might infringe disability discrimination legislation.

A lot of the captcha forms have the ability for the user to listen to an audio captcha..this still may exclude some users however.

I have seen a lot more 'logic' type ones more recently..I hadn't noticed them so much before.

Melanie

forum avatarlsaccouk
17th November 2011 9:12 PM
We use a simple and clear, custom written captcha.

I log all attempts to use the form and check the logs regularly in case a genuine request has failed.

For the javascript version you need to make it clear not to fill in the field still as not everyone has javascript enabled (although in reality this is very rare).

forum avataritsupportlondon
19th December 2011 3:43 PM
CAPTCHA can be hacked by scripts and usually you will still receive some spam.
The better way is to use a logical expression such as

What is 3+6

Which changes on each visit to the website.

Are you sure that the e-mails are coming via the contact form? Do you have the same e-mail address posted somewhere on your site?

I was just thinking that perhaps a crawler has picked up your address and you are getting spammed directly to it, rather than through the contact form.

Regards

wicketts

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