Assignment on the Anti-spam Solution for PrestaShop Contact Form

At some point in time, all website owners have to face the worst issue of spams, which may infect their contact form or any other elements on the website. It can be so irritating for them because it is not only unfortunate, but it is also a significant waste of time. If there is a paid or free plan, and form submissions number is limited, then your resources will be in trouble due to form spam. The people who are trying to get in touch with you, they face problems, as form spam can take your qualified and genuine leads away from you.

            If spam submissions are increasing on your website and you are not able to clean up to get rid of them, then the reputation of your brand can be at risk, because messages with spam can be frontend rather showing genuine content on the frontend for your visitors. If you are running a PrestaShop based website, and your contact forms are also facing the issue of form spam, then here I am to give you some brief information to get rid of this problem. Being an owner of the website, I can realize the pain, stress, and frustration of yours due to form spam.

            There are certain methods to deal with such spams so that you can breathe a bit better by getting a sigh of relief. So, let’s look at some information about anti-spam solutions.

Understanding Form Spam

Technically, when back actors or malicious entities use unwanted information by online forms to send phishing and abusive message, this is what form spam is. These form spams can be at the frontend of your website, even without your knowledge, and it can damage your reputation until you notice these spams. When it comes to spam emails, we all know that email has a spam folder, and all spam emails end up there, but there is no such facility for web forms, so spam messages and links will be there, disturbing your website functioning in so many ways.

So, you should realize as early as possible that spam forms should be dealt with immediately, and the situation should be controlled. The form spam works in two methods, one is called manual spamming, and the other is called spambots. So, you should be aware of these two methods to get rid of form spams.

4 Ways to Deal with Form Spams

            There are various methods to deal with form spams, and four primary methods are given below with required details:

1. Using Contact Forms

            It is great to have an email address in your online business contact form along with the social icons, telephone number, and physical address. Customers love to get in direct contact with you and email is one of the direct methods to contact.

However, when the purpose is to eliminate the spams from your site, then the first thing to do is to eliminate the email address, which is present on your website. The trolling websites using spambots tend to get web forms with an email address so that they get into privacy, and spam others as much as possible. It is important to know that you can fight with these spambots with the help of PrestaShop plugin such as email address encoder so that your email addresses are protected.

However, you must remember that it is not a permanent solution in any sense. That’s why it is recommended to use the PrestaShop contact form plugin so that you can get rid of those email addresses. This plugin contact form has so many great features, which are easy to use such as conditional logic, file uploads, and payment fields; which also has built-in technology of reCAPTCHA so that you are able to fight with form spam in a best possible manner.

The beauty of this plugin is functioning as an email address. The people are able to directly communicate with you. The other great thing is that you will not have to waste your time in any terms for dealing with the spam submissions.

2. Asking a Question

            One more considerable method to deal with form spam is to come up with a form, which asks one or two questions from visitors to your website, and they will have to give a correct answer. It is up to you, what kind of question you ask from visitors like you can ask any text question, or question can be based on math calculations, etc. So, they will have to answer it, otherwise, their form will not be submitted.

            Let’s look at some of the examples in this regard so that you understand how this method actually works. Below examples are questions, which are asked from visitors:

·         What is first in the line, A or C?

·         What comes first in this line, 3 or 7?

·         What is 5+7?

·         Identify the first letter in the word “Laptop”?

·         What is the second word of following sentence, “I also went to the grocery store”

3. Using Google reCAPTCHA

            Many of you may not be known to this; however, a few years ago, the CAPTCHA was killed by Google. And if anyone of you has seen that, then they might have seen an image such as given below:

            The idea was quite a genius which was associated with the concept of CAPTCHA. The purpose of such programs was to provide considerable protections for websites to deal with spambots, and it was done by coming up with tests for the visitors of the site, and they had to answer those tests so that they can submit their online form. It was one of the best methods to get protection from form spams.

            But issues started, when CAPTCHA developed by Google started to face a variety of issues such as:

·         The visitors were annoyed who were not able to give the correct answer or their input text was wrong.

·         It was found that spambots have found a way to bypass these CAPTCHAS and continue with form spam.

·         The CAPTCHAS were not able to clearly seen or heard, especially for the people who had limited sight problems or people with hearing problems.

These were not the only problems, as few other problems were also identified by the study, which was conducted by Stanford University:

·         9.8 seconds were taken by the Visual CAPTCHA

·         28.4 seconds were taken by Hearing CAPTCHA

·         Almost half the people gave up, when using audio CAPTCHA

So, these were some major problems and issues, which were identified with the Google CAPTCHA.

Introducing Google reCAPTCHA

            After the failure of CAPTCHA, it was important for Google to come up with something new, and they came up with reCAPTCHA. It was a good alternative to have a considerable anti-spambot program. This time, there was no need to answer any question or input any text, the site visitors are asked to click the button so that they are identified as humans, which helps them to submit their online forms.

            This reCAPTCHA program was not only more reliable, but it was also great with the user experience, and it also provided better protection against the spams. However, it has been found that some of the spambots can crack this program too, and bypass it. Still, it is a more reliable and effective way, and Google is trying to improve it as much as possible. So, you can use this Google reCAPTCHA with your PrestaShop online business to deal with form spams, more effectively than ever before.

4. Installing reCAPTCHA Anti-spam Module

            Here is another wonderful method for you to deal with form spams in an effective manner. PrestaShop is providing an opportunity to install a reCAPTCHA anti-spam module, which is so beneficial for your online business. You must understand that the addition of Captcha in your site is one of the best security measures, which you can take to deal with spams. It is a great method to protect your site from spams when users are contacting you or signing up with your online store.

The PrestaShop Captcha Module gives an easy method to include reCAPTCHA on your website so that you remain safe from a variety of spams. You should know that you can install this reCAPTCHA with your site’s registration forms, login, contact forms, subscription, newsletters, as well as, any other types of forms. You can get an email blacklist and IP blacklist with this module. Your PrestaShop online store is completed protected with this module as 4 levels of reCAPTCHA from Google with intense difficulty are used. It is a very easy module to install, and more convenient to use.

Final Words: You must understand that one solution cannot be relied on to get rid of form spams, and if you want to keep your site anti-spam, then you will have to use different methods in different situations. It is up to you, which anti-spam solution you choose, which goes well with your website, and what results from you get with it. However, do use one of these solutions, as you would not want to give free entry to spams to spoil your website.