Stop spam

Hey @handmadehome,

Thanks for contacting us!

We’re sorry to hear that you’ve encountered spam issues.

If you’re still having spam with reCAPTCHA enabled, you can consider increasing the security level of the reCAPTCHA integration on your site.

For v2 reCAPTCHA, you can do this by going to your reCAPTCHA account. Then in the settings of your current integration, you can adjust the Security Preference slider.

For v3 reCAPTCHA, you can adjust the settings in your WordPress admin area by going to WPForms > Settings > reCAPTCHA. In this Score Threshold field, you can increase the score to a higher number for stricter security.

And if you’d prefer not to use reCAPTCHA, we have another anti-spam protection feature, hCaptcha. This is a good option if you’d prefer not to sign up for Google’s reCAPTCHA service. Within your forms, hCaptcha will display a checkbox asking users to prove they’re human (much like Google’s v2 Checkbox reCAPTCHA). We have a detailed guide for setting up hCaptcha.

Alternatively, you can consider the third-party plugins such as WordPress Zero Spam or Spam protection, AntiSpam, FireWall by CleanTalk which work out of the box to protect your forms against spam.

Hope this helps!

But I’m getting the main volume of spam from the contact form deleted several weeks ago from the plugin. This form doesn’t exist anymore. So, I have no way to edit it. I was sure if I delete the form it can’t be used anymore. How is this possible that I’m still getting messages from the form wich not exist?

Hey @handmadehome – I looked at the website, and I see that you’re using WPForms on the Contact page. When you get a chance, can you please confirm if you’re seeing the spam issues with the contact form?

Kindly,

I’m getting spam from contact form. But this is not the very form you may saw on my website here https://www.handmadehome.me/contact As I wrote, I deleted this spammy form from WPform plugin complectly. So, I have no it in the list of forms. Looks like spammers have an old copy of my website with this old contact form and continue to use it…

Hey @handmadehome – If possible, can you please share a screenshot of your email header as that will give us the information to know from where those notifications are coming in? In case it helps, here’s how the email header looks like.

Kindly,

My mailbox doesn’t let me take screenshot this way. But here is a full header:

It it okay?

And here is like my inbox looks like%)

• This reply was modified 2 years, 5 months ago by handmadehome.

Hey @handmadehome – Thanks for sharing the link. When you get a chance, can you please double-check the URL as I’m seeing service unavailable error messages?

Kindly,

Please, try again, shoul be okay

Hey @handmadehome,

I looked at the header, and it seems that the email notification is coming from the “Contact form for textile art (ID #398)”. When you have some time, can you please check if the above form is still there on the website?

Kindly,

Hi, there is no “Contact form for textile art (ID #398)” on website. As I wrote, this form was deleted about 2-3 months ago.

This is a full list of forms I have in WPForms plugin:

Hey @handmadehome – Since the form is already deleted, can you please check if there’s any staging server or a copy of the website online which might be triggering the spam submission?

Kindly,

Neither of these. This is why this situation looks so strange. I have only one website, and no staging. I have no idea where it can come from. Maybe spammers using something like time machine?

Hey @handmadehome – It’s quite strange that you’re still having the submissions. At this moment, I would suggest you check with the hosting provider and see if they can share any insights of any unusual activity happening on their server that might be triggering the submissions.

Kindly,

I sent this thread to my hosting provider, they have checked and they didn’t find any issues on their side.

• This reply was modified 2 years, 5 months ago by handmadehome.

Hi @handmadehome — We appreciate your patience here!

When you get a chance, could you please send us the screenshot of this submission as the footer of the email will include the URL of the site? This way we can help you further to narrow down this issue.

kindly,