Spammers and missing fields...

[Abacus]

Is there anyway to stop the form being sent if any fields aren't filled out? The spammers are getting through to me by using this tactic...

The following error occurred in FormMail :
missing_fields
Error=The form required some values that you did not seem to provide.
Your telephone number


name: 'Alvie'

telephone: ''
fax: '13 255 645 135'

reference: 'http://ariele.italy-info.org/criteri...liabilita.html'
address: 'New York'

[david_de]

Set all the fields as required that you want filled out. Your alert indicates that the phone number was not filled out or not filled out properly and should not have been submitted. It looks as if all you got was the alert.

The CAPTCHA is a way of cutting off spam bots that automatically fill in forms but not humans. Humans usually would not want to waste much time sending spam manually.

They may be testing the form to see if it has an auto responder. I get those from time to time but usually it is a one shot thing. When they find there is no auto responder they move on. They really want to spam the masses easily not just one guy.

You could turn off the alert message but then you would not know if the form or forms were having any problems.

[crabtree]

to switch off alerts you set ALERT_ON_USER_ERROR to false

[Abacus]

Thanks Guys!

Its the alerts caused by the spam grunge that is annoying me!

[Abacus]

What they are effectively doing is filling in the fields with a URL - if there was a way to check that this was happening and prevent it being posted (and sending an error message) it would help tremendously..

Note in the undermentioned how there are no blank fields the spambot has put " in any ones it finds that are not big enough for the URL.

name: 'Aldrick'

telephone: ''
fax: '13 255 645 135'

reference: 'http://ermanno.italy-info.org/white-meat.html'
personnel: ''
address: 'New York'
invoice: ''
comment: 'Buon giorno! Recentemente sul foro di ha trovato un luogo necessario appena sul soggetto interessante di: <a href= http://ermanno.italy-info.org/camoscio-d-abruzzo.html >camoscio d abruzzo</a> http://ermanno.italy-info.org/camoscio-d-abruzzo.html]camoscio d abruzzo[/url] <a href= http://ermanno.italy-info.org/prospetti-cappotto.html >prospetti cappotto</a> http://ermanno.italy-info.org/prospetti-cappotto.html]prospetti cappotto[/url] C'e` la piccola pubblicita` e molte informazioni utili su quest.'

[david_de]

The best thing to do is set up CAPTCHA so the bot can not submit the form. This is the numbers and or letters in a box it asks you to insert what you see. The idea is most bots can not figure it out. Other then an intense spay and neuter program it is the best way I know to stop spammers.

[russellr]

Hi there,

I thought I'd just jump in on this and tell you that we've recently added a detection of exactly this sort of spammer attack.

Use the Upgrade Wizard to upgrade to version 7.13 and follow the instructions to enable this new attack detection.

[Abacus]

Thanks Guys - running 7.13 already and have installed the CATCHPA thingymajig...

Unfortunately when they click on the new image button there is an error. Can someone take a look and tell me what have done wrong as its baffling me!

http://www.jedsite.info/content/prof...ntractors.html

[russellr]

Hi,

To avoid the specific problem you're having with this spam attack, you don't need the CAPTCHA feature.

Remove it and then read the doco above the ATTACK_DETECTION_MANY_URLS setting. Set it to a non-zero value and you'll not get annoyed by these attacks.

[Abacus]

Looked at that originally but misinterpreted the settings due to an advanced attack of stupidity caused by it being 2am and a desperate need for a cup of coffee

Having read it when I am more sane I see it now... The catchpa thing is a good idea though and I have retained it alongs with its current problem...