Four Ways to Cut Down on Spam

By Jordan Paraso  |   Submitted On April 23, 2013

  

It's a sad fact of life, but two decades have passed since the Internet first gained widespread acceptance among the general public, and we still have to deal with spam. Unsolicited and unwanted advertising continues to clutter cyberspace. It irritates all who receive it. And in worst-case scenarios, spam can even disable a website or email address if the volume is too heavy.

Worse, today's spammers have grown infinitely more sophisticated than their predecessors. Which means that even though most web browsers and email programs come with spam detectors, spammers with the skills, technology and determination can still find ways to deposit their pornography links, phishing schemes, and ridiculous get-rich-quick advertisements into the inboxes of unwilling recipients.

Fortunately, not all is lost. Here are four simple steps you can take to dramatically reduce the amount of spam that manages to find its way into your email inbox.

• Install CAPTCHA on your website forms to foil the bots. CAPTCHA, which stands for "Completely Automated Public Turing test to tell Computers and Humans Apart," requires people to enter a randomized code in order to submit an online form. The randomized code is often in the form of distorted, wiggly, or otherwise hard (but not impossible) to read lettering. Spam bots - the automatic email generators favored by today's sophisticated spammers - can't read the randomized code so they can't submit the form.


• Don't put your email address on your website. By itself, this will eliminate a lot of spam. But the decision has to be weighed against with other concerns, such as making it easy for site visitors to contact you. If, like most companies, you decide to include email addresses on your website, install PrivateDaddy. This free, open-source software hides your email address from spam bots while still making it visible to humans. Some web platforms, such as WordPress, even come with a plugin you can install.


• Turn off comments on your blog. Again, not an easy decision. But like leaving your email address off your website, it can help to reduce spam in the right situations. If you have a very active community of readers who post a lot of legitimate responses, the value of that community will outweigh the inconvenience of any spam that comes through. On the other hand, if you tend to get a small amount of random comments, chances are that many of them will be spam. Turning off comments will eliminate spammers' ability to get through using your blog.


• Unsubscribe from what you don't read. When you subscribe to a newsletter, blog, or other form of online communications, you give that business or organization permission to contact you via email. You may not want to receive what they send you, but technically it isn't spam. So they can - and will - send you stuff until you tell them to stop.

Legally, all email newsletters must have an unsubscribe link somewhere in the email. Usually, they make it hard to find by putting it at the very bottom of the page, in small print. But if you no longer read a newsletter or don't get any real value from it, hunt down that link and unsubscribe.

Be smart, be vigilant, and minimize the ways spammers can gain entrance to your email inbox. The small amount of time you invest will pay big dividends in reducing the amount of unwanted email you receive.

Jordan Paraso, Web Developer at Bop Design
Bop Design is a San Diego Web Design and Marketing Agency
Bop Design is a boutique marketing communications firm. We express your business' values through branding, advertising, print design and custom web design and development. We also help attract your ideal customer through affordable seo services and search engine marketing. Our focus is on small businesses that want an external team of marketing specialists to help give their brand an edge in the marketplace.

Download our new white paper " Marketing 101: Marketing for Success " today!

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/expert/Jordan_Paraso/873670

How To Prevent Spam Through Your Website Forms

By Alex H D  |   Submitted On January 06, 2015

  

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We all hate email spam in our email inbox, but rarely try to get to the root of the spam mail's origin and purpose. Many webmasters face a problem of receiving spam emails through the forms on their website. These are usually contact forms which are setup for visitor's to post their inquiries or to give feedback. Spammers try to hijack these forms to send spam mails, either by manipulating where the forms send emails or by flooding the webmaster with junk mail. This article points out some of the ways in which you can fight spam in website forms meant for comments, feedback, inquiries and any other contact.

Form Fields Validation

A very important part of having a secure form is to ensure that there is strict validation of the form fields. This is best explained by an example. When you are accepting a phone number through the contact form, you can code the form to ensure that only numbers are entered in the form field. Similarly for an email address field, the form must be able to determine a well-formed email address has been entered. If the fields contain anything which that field is not supposed to contain, like special characters or some funny text, then the form will throw an error and will not be submitted till the mistakes are corrected. This prevents any malicious code or text from being inserted in the form. It also prevents automated bots from filling up the form without understanding what is required and how it is to be filled.

Captcha

One of the most effective ways of fighting form spam is by enabling a captcha at the end of each form. The captcha requires the user to enter a word or number verification which is shown in an image. This prevents bots and automated systems from sending the forms mindlessly. Since bots cannot usually detect text within images, they fail to enter the correct Captcha text preventing the form from being submitted.

Confirmation Alert

Another simple trick that can be used to harass the spammers is to add a confirmation alert box which pops up to confirm the details that the user is trying to submit. Robots and automatic form submission software are unable to cause the clicking of the confirmation button in the alert box. Something like: "Are you sure you want to submit the form? Yes No," can be an added layer of protection from comment spammers. This is also a good way of allowing users to review the information they are sending and correct any mistakes or typos before submitting the form.

Anti-Spam Plugins

Akismet is an Anti-Spam plugin used for WordPress, which can identify genuine comments and filter out the spam comments. This can be helpful if you do not want to enable a captcha confirmation box or cannot have specific validation on your form. Similar anti-spam plugins are available for other platforms as well. While Akismet type plugins are not 100% correct and may lead to some false-positives, they do a really good job of filtering out the noise.

Logging Information

One of the most important things that a programmer can do to track the sources of spam and patterns of spam is to log additional information of the user. This means that along with the normal fields that the user is submitting, the form will also capture his / her IP Address, machine name, browser details, location information and similar information which can be used to trace the spam source. Using this information you can either take action against the spammer or even block his IP Address. This way he will not be able to keep harassing you or making random submissions.

Some programmers also swear by hidden form fields in CSS, which prevent the form field names from being seen by bots, thereby preventing them from knowing what data to auto fill in the text boxes. Consult your coder for the best solution for your website.

Your website deserves the best Unlimited Hosting Plans from HostingXtreme. We also offer Reseller Hosting and Shared Hosting plans. To know more visit our website.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/expert/Alex_H_D/1829195

How To Prevent Spam Through Your Website Forms

By Alex H D  |   Submitted On January 06, 2015

  

1111111

We all hate email spam in our email inbox, but rarely try to get to the root of the spam mail's origin and purpose. Many webmasters face a problem of receiving spam emails through the forms on their website. These are usually contact forms which are setup for visitor's to post their inquiries or to give feedback. Spammers try to hijack these forms to send spam mails, either by manipulating where the forms send emails or by flooding the webmaster with junk mail. This article points out some of the ways in which you can fight spam in website forms meant for comments, feedback, inquiries and any other contact.

Form Fields Validation

A very important part of having a secure form is to ensure that there is strict validation of the form fields. This is best explained by an example. When you are accepting a phone number through the contact form, you can code the form to ensure that only numbers are entered in the form field. Similarly for an email address field, the form must be able to determine a well-formed email address has been entered. If the fields contain anything which that field is not supposed to contain, like special characters or some funny text, then the form will throw an error and will not be submitted till the mistakes are corrected. This prevents any malicious code or text from being inserted in the form. It also prevents automated bots from filling up the form without understanding what is required and how it is to be filled.

Captcha

One of the most effective ways of fighting form spam is by enabling a captcha at the end of each form. The captcha requires the user to enter a word or number verification which is shown in an image. This prevents bots and automated systems from sending the forms mindlessly. Since bots cannot usually detect text within images, they fail to enter the correct Captcha text preventing the form from being submitted.

Confirmation Alert

Another simple trick that can be used to harass the spammers is to add a confirmation alert box which pops up to confirm the details that the user is trying to submit. Robots and automatic form submission software are unable to cause the clicking of the confirmation button in the alert box. Something like: "Are you sure you want to submit the form? Yes No," can be an added layer of protection from comment spammers. This is also a good way of allowing users to review the information they are sending and correct any mistakes or typos before submitting the form.

Anti-Spam Plugins

Akismet is an Anti-Spam plugin used for WordPress, which can identify genuine comments and filter out the spam comments. This can be helpful if you do not want to enable a captcha confirmation box or cannot have specific validation on your form. Similar anti-spam plugins are available for other platforms as well. While Akismet type plugins are not 100% correct and may lead to some false-positives, they do a really good job of filtering out the noise.

Logging Information

One of the most important things that a programmer can do to track the sources of spam and patterns of spam is to log additional information of the user. This means that along with the normal fields that the user is submitting, the form will also capture his / her IP Address, machine name, browser details, location information and similar information which can be used to trace the spam source. Using this information you can either take action against the spammer or even block his IP Address. This way he will not be able to keep harassing you or making random submissions.

Some programmers also swear by hidden form fields in CSS, which prevent the form field names from being seen by bots, thereby preventing them from knowing what data to auto fill in the text boxes. Consult your coder for the best solution for your website.

Your website deserves the best Unlimited Hosting Plans from HostingXtreme. We also offer Reseller Hosting and Shared Hosting plans. To know more visit our website.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/expert/Alex_H_D/1829195