What?” You didn’t want an inquiry from someone selling you Viagra or a timeshare in China?” Good news; we can help. If you are getting a lot of spam inquiries from your web form, then you probably need a spam check device on your contact forms.
We offer three types of spam checks.
- CAPTCHA
- Almost all spam is automated from computers trying to build links to their web site. CAPTCHA stops this. It stands for Completely Automated Public Turing test to tell Computers and Humans Apart. “ It requires a user to repeat a series of letters and numbers. These CAPTCHA scripts are quite effective and are common enough to users to not present too many usability issues.
- More information can be found here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CAPTCHA and also here: http://www.google.com/recaptcha
- Our Easy-to-Use Custom Script
- PaperStreet has a custom script that we can install. It error checks for known spam techniques including:” too many links, keyword text, known email aliases, etc. If the form fails any of these checks, it automatically kicks the users to a friendly failure page advising them to change their submission.
- The good news of our script is that it does not require any user to repeat a series of letters and numbers. The bad news is that every once in awhile we must update the script to check against a new spam technique. So there is ongoing maintenance involved, but it makes for a cleaner web site without the security checks.
- WordPress Form Checks
- Finally, if you are in WordPress, there are a variety of form checks, including a popular simple math test. The simple math tends to be a good solution, as it just requires a user to add two numbers. So long as your user can add 2+3, then they can easily pass the test.
What to do?
If you are getting a lot of automated spam, then install a spam check. Each one typically takes about an hour to install and is typically at our set fee schedule. Each one has its pros and cons, but all stop 99% of the spam inquiries. Let us know if you need to install a spam check.