{"id":534,"date":"2024-02-27T16:56:29","date_gmt":"2024-02-27T16:56:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.hostinger.io\/support\/2024\/02\/27\/9005870-how-to-secure-your-contact-forms-against-spam-at-hostinger\/"},"modified":"2024-02-27T16:56:29","modified_gmt":"2024-02-27T16:56:29","slug":"9005870-how-to-secure-your-contact-forms-against-spam-at-hostinger","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.hostinger.com\/support\/9005870-how-to-secure-your-contact-forms-against-spam-at-hostinger\/","title":{"rendered":"How to Secure Your Contact Forms Against Spam at Hostinger"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"no-margin\">One technique spammers use to send unsolicited messages is <b>exploiting the contact forms of websites<\/b>, often for advertising or malicious purposes.<\/p><p class=\"no-margin\">\n<\/p><p class=\"no-margin\">When a website&rsquo;s contact form is used for spam submissions, it can face issues such as overloaded email inboxes, decreased <b>deliverability<\/b> of legitimate messages, and potentially face <b>security risks<\/b>.<\/p><p class=\"no-margin\">\n<\/p><p class=\"no-margin\">To prevent this, here are some useful measures you can take to protect your website&rsquo;s contact form:<\/p><ul>\n<li>\n<p class=\"no-margin\"><b>Implement <a href=\"https:\/\/www.google.com\/recaptcha\/intro\/v3.html\" target=\"_blank\" class=\"intercom-content-link\" rel=\"noopener\">reCAPTCHA<\/a> <\/b>&ndash; This well-known tool developed by Google helps identify and block suspicious activity. Opt for <b>reCAPTCHA v3<\/b> whenever possible, as it doesn&rsquo;t require user interaction most of the time. If you encounter compatibility issues or legitimate users are being blocked, use <b>reCAPTCHA v2<\/b>.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>\n<p class=\"no-margin\"><b>Custom captchas<\/b> &ndash; As an alternative, you can add your own version by adding a mandatory random question. Make sure to rotate the questions on a regular basis <\/p>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li>\n<p class=\"no-margin\"><b>Install antispam plugins <\/b>&ndash; If your website is built using WordPress, there are both free and paid solutions like Akismet, Antispam Bee, CleanTalk, and others that offer advanced spam filtering and protection<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li>\n<p class=\"no-margin\"><b>Enable a honeypot <\/b>&ndash; Some WordPress plugins allow you to create a hidden field that flags submissions as it will only be filled in by spambots. This option does not create false positives, as it is invisible to humans<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li>\n<p class=\"no-margin\"><b>Disable autoresponders <\/b>&ndash; Avoid sending automated confirmation emails upon form submission. While this doesn&rsquo;t directly prevent spam, it reduces the potential for information harvesting, will save you resources and protect your email reputation. Instead, you can use a confirmation page after the submission to acknowledge it<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul><p class=\"no-margin\">\n<\/p><p class=\"no-margin\">Some additional considerations are to check for <b>plugin compatibility<\/b>, regularly monitor your antispam tools to avoid legitimate inquiries being flagged as spam and <b>keep your scripts and plugins up to date<\/b>.<\/p><p class=\"no-margin\">\n<\/p><p class=\"no-margin\">Spammers constantly develop new techniques, so a <b>multi-layered approach<\/b> is crucial for to keep your contact forms protected. Feel free to use a combination of the above strategies, based on your website&rsquo;s specific needs and resources. This way, you can <b>significantly reduce contact form spam<\/b> and keep an efficient communication with your audience.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Preventing spam messaes being submitted using your website&#8217;s contact form<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":581,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"include_on_kodee":true,"footnotes":""},"categories":[175],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-534","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general-information"],"hreflangs":[{"locale":"en-US","link":"https:\/\/www.hostinger.com\/support\/9005870-how-to-secure-your-contact-forms-against-spam-at-hostinger\/","default":1}],"include_on_kodee":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hostinger.com\/support\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/534","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hostinger.com\/support\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hostinger.com\/support\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hostinger.com\/support\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/581"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hostinger.com\/support\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=534"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.hostinger.com\/support\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/534\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hostinger.com\/support\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=534"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hostinger.com\/support\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=534"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hostinger.com\/support\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=534"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}