Contact form spam consists of unwanted messages submitted through your site’s contact forms. These forms often have blank fields that spammers or bots can fill out with whatever content they choose.
Contact form spam is a common issue for most website owners. Spambots can target any website, regardless of its traffic or ranking.
Sorting through numerous messages to distinguish spam from legitimate inquiries is both time-consuming and frustrating. Fortunately, there are simple and effective methods to protect your WordPress site from spam while still enjoying the benefits of contact forms throughout your website.
Are spambots attacking your forms?
Before tackling this common problem, it’s essential to know what contact form spam is and how it impacts your website and business.
Contact form spam consists of unwanted messages submitted through your site’s contact forms. These forms often have blank fields that spammers or bots can fill out with whatever content they choose.
You might receive the occasional irrelevant promotional message or offensive content, or you could be bombarded with hundreds or even thousands of submissions. This forces you to sift through spam to avoid missing genuine messages from followers or potential customers. Additionally, an influx of spam submissions can overload your server, causing your site to slow down or encounter errors when you make changes.
Generally, there are two main types of contact form spam.
Manual/Human Submissions – Manual spammers are humans who fill out your forms, and submit them personally. Manual contact form spam is more difficult to overcome because spammers can get past many anti-spam solutions like CAPTCHAs, but they are usually a lower part of the spam ratio compared to spambots.
Spambots – Spambots are the primary source of form spam and can be quite dangerous. These automated programs scour the internet for forms, and, depending on how they’re programmed, they can fill your inbox with junk text and phishing links. When programmed for more malicious activities, spambots can compromise your website’s integrity by stealing personal information, spreading malware, or even taking control of your site. They can generate a high volume of form submissions in a short period. However, they are easier to block since they can’t circumvent specific anti-spam measures.
Ridding your forms of spam
We use a variety of spam blocking plugins and online integrations to significantly decrease and rid your online forms of email spam. If your website forms are under attack by spambots it may be time to talk about additional spam protection for your online forms.
