Spam Bots Are Ruining Your Contact Form (And Your Sanity!) – Here’s How to Fight Back 🚫

Spam emails from your contact form can be a real nightmare. If you’re tired of filtering through junk submissions, bots, and phishing messages, it’s time to take action. At SetUpShopOnline, we specialize in securing websites and eliminating spam attacks—so you only receive legitimate inquiries.

Here’s how we can fix your contact form today and stop spam from wasting your time.

1️⃣ Immediate Fixes to Block Spam

The first step to reducing spam is implementing proven anti-spam measures that work without disrupting your legitimate visitors.

✅ Upgrade to Google reCAPTCHA v3

If your site is still using reCAPTCHA v2, it’s time to upgrade! Google reCAPTCHA v3 works invisibly in the background, blocking bots without requiring users to solve puzzles or checkboxes.

✅ Implement a Honeypot Field

Honeypots are a simple yet effective trick—a hidden form field that bots can’t resist filling out. If a submission contains this field, it’s flagged as spam without affecting real users.

✅ Enable Spam Filtering for Your Contact Form

If your site is built on WordPress, we recommend using a spam-filtering plugin like Akismet or a custom script to block repeat spam submissions from the same IP address.

2️⃣ Advanced Security Measures

Once the basics are covered, we go a step further with advanced anti-spam tactics.

🔒 Block Spam IPs & Limit Submission Rates

By analyzing spam logs, we can identify suspicious IPs and block them via .htaccess, firewall settings, or hosting configurations. We also limit submission frequency, ensuring no single IP can flood your form with spam.

🔒 Require Email Verification

For high-value contact forms, requiring users to confirm their email before submitting can significantly reduce bot-generated spam.

🔒 Block Spam Keywords & Patterns

If spam messages follow a pattern (e.g., multiple links, specific keywords), we set up automated filters to reject those messages before they hit your inbox.

3️⃣ Monitor for Future Spam Attacks

Even after securing your form, we continuously monitor your website for new threats. By checking your traffic logs, we can detect if a specific country or bot network is targeting your site. In these cases, we implement a Web Application Firewall (WAF) using Cloudflare, Sucuri, or Wordfence to block threats before they even reach your site.

4️⃣ Rate-Limit Submissions to Stop Bot Attacks

If bots are still getting through, we prevent them from spamming your form by setting up rate limits:

✅ WPForms – Limit form entries per IP
✅ Wordfence Security Plugin – Firewall-based rate limiting

These settings ensure bots can’t submit multiple messages in a short time, reducing spam instantly.

5️⃣ Enable a Web Application Firewall (WAF)

A WAF acts as your website’s first line of defense, blocking malicious traffic before it even reaches your server. Our recommended solutions include:

✔ Cloudflare (Free & Paid) – Blocks bots, spam, and even DDoS attacks.
✔ Sucuri Firewall – Protects against spam submissions and harmful requests.
✔ Wordfence (Free & Paid) – A security powerhouse for WordPress websites.

📢 Stop Spam in Its Tracks – Let’s Fix Your Contact Form Today!

Tired of sorting through endless spam emails? We’ve got the solution! Let SetUpShopOnline secure your website so you only receive real leads – not junk.

📞 Call us now at 201-380-2554 and let’s get your contact form spam-free!
📅 Prefer a quick chat? Book a free 15-minute Zoom call and we’ll walk you through the best fixes for your site.

🔒 Stop wasting time on spam – let’s fix it today! 🚀