That is when it shows the image reCAPTCHA instead. Google shows the green checkbox reCAPTCHA most of the time, but sometimes it needs more proof that users are human. Why do some people have to solve the image reCAPTCHA?

There is a reCAPTCHA setting on the form’s Form Settings -> Security page with the options for always, auto, and off. What is the difference between CAPTCHA and reCAPTCHA?ĬAPTCHA is the test to tell computers and people apart and reCAPTCHA is a service provided by Google to reduce spam and bots from accessing forms. Common Questions How does CAPTCHA work?ĬAPTCHA is a question or checkbox that computers are unable to answer correctly, therefore increasing the likelihood that the visitor is human. Prevent form spam and unwanted submissions while still allowing real users easy access to your form.Įasily enable reCAPTCHA to always be required, or you can let its advanced algorithms automatically handle it. These 3 easy steps provide a great barrier against spam and malicious emails being sent via your website’s contact form.Utilize Google’s industry standard reCAPTCHA on your form. Next, add a shortcode to your contact form and reCAPTCHA is displayed. You will be presented with a link to /recaptcha – You will need to sign up to gain an API key.

To access, simply navigate to ‘Contact’ on the left hand menu bar and select ‘Integration’. After many failed attempts I stumbled on Contact Form 7’s own built in form. I must have spent a good couple of hours searching for an easy to use Captcha plug in. This is how a honeypot catches the bot - it introduces an additional field in the form that if filled out will cause the form not to validate. Using this method they somewhat blindly fill in fields, regardless of whether the field should be filled in or not. While some spam is manually submitted, the vast majority is posted by bots scripted in a specific way to submit spam to the largest number of form types. This addition to Contact Form 7 adds basic honeypot anti-spam functionality to thwart spambots. Install the Contact Form 7 Honeypot Plugin These keys are free for blogs and personal websites. To activate you will need to register with Akismet and obtain an API Key. The plug-in automatically checks all comments and filters out the ones that look like spam.

This article details a number of steps you can take to put an end to unsolicited mailings…Īkismet checks your comments and contact form submissions against a global database of spam to prevent your site from publishing malicious content. I’ve been contacted by a number of people wishing to put a stop to nuisance spam emails sent through the popular Contact Form 7 Email plugin. We have seen cyber security feature prominently in the news recently following the WannaCry ransomware attack. How to stop spam emails being sent through Contact Form 7

Google forms stop spam bots