Understanding SPAM Prevention, and not using CAPTCHA plugin.

I read the following

1.5.7 has built-in spam protection so this should not be needed.
"Email - SPAM prevention built in to forms (Credits @davewest for zenNonCAPTCHA)."

from another thread. Is this turned on by default? If I open an incognito tab and asked a question from the Contact Us page, I don't notice anything that suggests there is any type of SPAM prevention.

I'm on 5.7a and I'm using Responsive Classic Template. Appreciate any advice because I still get tons of spam.

Thank you...

https://www.mrcollectoronline.com/index.php?main_page=contact_us

Yes, it is enabled by default.

No, it will not be obvious. It does not include a CAPTCHA to nag humans to try to prove they're human.

What are the patterns of spam that you get? Certain kinds of phrases? Certain kinds of words/content in the subject? Certain kinds of content in the message body? Common IP address?

I did not get a confirmation on my post so I may have double-posted, I apologize for that as I did not see my thread after I submitted. I just emptied my SPAM folder, I had about 200 of them. I will let it fill back up and then report in more detail the items you asked for. Thank you for your work and your timely support!

Bubbadood:

I did not get a confirmation on my post so I may have double-posted, I apologize for that as I did not see my thread after I submitted. I just emptied my SPAM folder, I had about 200 of them. I will let it fill back up and then report in more detail the items you asked for. Thank you for your work and your timely support!
Is that ~200 in an hour, a day, a week, a month, a year?

While it does a good job, there is likely to be a few that "get through" especially if they end up being more manually entered.

If the built-in SPAM protection isn't working for you, you can also try the Access Blocker. I've been using it on my sites for a couple of years now and I simply update its configuration settings when/if a SPAM email comes through.

Thanks for the reminder on that - I need to deploy this on one of my client's sites - he's getting spammed like crazy.

Since updating to 5.7a and after emptying my SPAM approximately 4 days ago I've only gotten 1 SPAM via Contact Us. To answer another member's question, my guess is that the SPAM I did have was probably over months as I do not check nor delete it very often but 99% of it was from my Zen Cart (contact us). My guess is that SPAM for the most part is handled very well with the new SPAM prevention and I was looking at older mail. If it ever gets out of control again I will look at the addon you mentioned. In fact I was looking at that addon when I posted my original question, the thread seemed to lean towards it was no longer needed which is what brought me to starting this thread.

Thanks again!

DrByte:

Yes, it is enabled by default.

No, it will not be obvious. It does not include a CAPTCHA to nag humans to try to prove they're human.

What are the patterns of spam that you get? Certain kinds of phrases? Certain kinds of words/content in the subject? Certain kinds of content in the message body? Common IP address?

So I just got spammed with about 11 emails, I believe this may have been what filled my SPAM folder before I emptied it. I want to contribute so let me know what details you would like from the sender. They all had the exact same body, and it looks like the mail was generated using different phone numbers and email addresses each time. I got all 12 mails within 1 minute from first to last. Their is an office use only section at the bottom of the email that shows the same IP address for all the mail but I'm thinking that's not a real tell and more so just part of the body of the email. If you would like any other details from the source message just let me know, happy to provide them.

Taking a guess that this is what you may want in the source

Received: from mout.perfora.net (mout.perfora.net. [74.208.4.194])
by mx.google.com with ESMTPS id b8si15143ile.42.2020.11.24.11.52.06

This was at the footer of every mail:

Office Use Only:       
From:   RonaldBep
Mail:   [B](random on each mail)[/B]
Login Name:     Not logged in
Login Email:    Not logged in
Telephone:      Not logged in
IP Address:     212.102.37.238 - 212.102.37.238
Host Address:   unn-212-102-37-238.cdn77.com
Date and Time:  Tue Nov 24 2020 14:52:27 EST

The IP address is in Zurich. And is a server-farm. Typical of a bot.
You're in NJ, so I suspect you're not worried about blocking customers who might have Zurich IP addresses and trying to shop via a hijacked server datacenter (instead of from a home PC or mobile).
Thus, I recommend simply blocking the unwanted traffic.
According to the whois database https://whois.domaintools.com/212.102.37.238 the entire IP range for that datacenter is 212.102.36.0/23
So you can put the following in a /public_html/.htaccess file:
deny from 212.102.36.0/23

If you want to programmatically make it harder for bots then you may need to add a recaptcha widget that adds a slider or other defense mechanisms.

DrByte:

So you can put the following in a /public_html/.htaccess file:
deny from 212.102.36.0/23

I wasn't aware of that, thank you, I certainly will.

Note: Zen Cart does not have a .htaccess file at the top level of the store directory. It has various .htaccess files in various subdirectories.

(ie: if you go looking for one and don't find one there, that's why. Just create your own.)

If your store is in a location other than public_html then adjust my earlier note accordingly.
Consult your hosting company for assistance with IP-based restrictions via .htaccess