Help needed - Unwanted Contact Form Spam

[sgallasch]

Hello fellow Zenners,

I have gone through the forum, i am finding it hard to find the best information on how to stop unwanted spam coming through the zen cart "contact us' page. I am using v1.38.

Is there a module available? or an admin setting that will stop this bot created spam.

I know i am not the only one experiencing this, Does Dr Byte have a answer somewhere to this problem on the forum?

Any help on this non critical but very annoying problem would be muchly appreciated.

[hhstudio]

You can use this add-on

http://www.zen-cart.com/index.php?ma...oducts_id=1202

It uses a paid service called Form Armor

You can see them by going to http://www.zen-cart.com/partners/formarmor

they give you a 30 day free trial. Then $9.00 a month from then on out.

Hope that helps.

[DrByte]

Strongly recommend the FormArmor option.

[kiddo]

This free mod in the downloads section is also very good and blocks most spammers. Probably not as good as the paid service mentioned above, but has worked very well for me.

http://www.zen-cart.com/index.php?ma...roducts_id=551

[pasi]

I did build a very clever anti-spam system for my old shop after getting around 30 of spams through the contact us form... But after redoing my site, I forgot the anti-spam system and am getting about 5 spams a day now.

Used the old system for 2 years... Spam stopped but all real customer contacts came through... it was/is a rather complex system but totally transparent for the users.

I'll try to recover the code from my old shop and post it in the downloads some day when I'm not too busy.

And don't use CAPTCHA for anything! ... Was browsing the net one day for a downloadable product I wanted (from a non-zencart shop) and after I found it I was really disappointed, because I just couldn't get the order through because of a CAPTCHA system. It made so unclear images of letters, it was impossible to get it right... after about 10 tries of 8 letter random-letter words I gave up and went of to find another place to buy the product (they lost over 100eurs because of a stupid order system!)

[kiddo]

Some CAPTCHAs can be really frustrating. The TTF/GD one in the mods collection is pretty readable and still blocks the bulk of spam. I know what you mean about ones that can't be read by humans either. Have given up on a few myself.

[athena]

$9 a month here, 9 there, $30 here $49 there.....!!!! I too have read all the threads here about this and there is no good free answer yet.

it all adds up to doing without that dinner out at the end of the week....or being able to afford Satellite or NetFlicks....or donating to the zencart team!!!

DrByte suggested in this post:

http://www.zen-cart.com/forum/showthread.php?t=90119

an option to require users to be logged in to use the contact us form:

The (tell-a-friend) page built-in to Zen Cart is designed to not allow people to submit inquiries unless they're logged in to an account. This at least deters a majority of spambots.

You might try customizing your (contact-us) page to operate similarly.

That would cut down on questions but help a great deal.

1. How would one go about that? 2. How would one go about adding an extra field, say that would maybe be hidden or require a 2 + 2 sort of response?

[d1rage5]

Can you force (or set) the contact form to be only completed by a logged in customer?

I see this would stop people that spam you if they have to spend the time to create an account, if its a person that really wants some information then they wont mind creating an account.

[HandsomeWeb]

You can use this add-on

http://www.zen-cart.com/index.php?ma...oducts_id=1202

It uses a paid service called Form Armor

You can see them by going to http://www.zen-cart.com/partners/formarmor

they give you a 30 day free trial. Then $9.00 a month from then on out.

Hope that helps.

Looks like $19 per month to me.

[Philibel]

Version 1.3.8
I also had some email spam lately.

From: Jim Guthrie
E-mail address sender: jimguthriesa######################

------------------------------------------------------

Search Engine Optimization

We would like to get your website on first page of Google.

All of our processes use the most ethical "white hat" Search Engine
Optimization techniques that will not get your website banned or penalized.

Please reply and I would be happy to send you a proposal.


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Office Use Only:
From: Jim Guthrie
E-mail address sender: jimguthriesa######################
Users name: NOT LOGGED IN
Log in e-mail: NOT LOGGED IN
IP Address: 122.160.99.22 - 122.160.99.22
Host address: 122.160.99.22
Date & time: Fri Dec 11 2009 19:25:56 CET

A business with a gmail account? Come on!
IP location: India
Jim Guthrie from India?

My cure was a total denial of site access though the .htaccess file by entering the line:
Deny from 122.160.99.22

So far, so good.