How To Prevent Spam Form Submissions & Protect Against Spam Bots

According to Statista, in 2021 fraudulent traffic through “bad bots” accounted for 27.7 percent of web traffic, representing a 2.1 percent growth from the previous year.

Bad bots or Form Spam bots have become one of the most common challenges faced by businesses these days flooding their website & database with spam form submissions.

Dealing with form spam can be time-consuming and frustrating, as it clutters your database & email lists with fake form submissions, making it challenging to identify and prioritize genuine leads. Moreover, they affect your data quality followed by wasted resources, diminished user experience, and poor campaign performance.

In some cases, form spam might also get you into legal complications, as the spammers can enter your system through your signup forms with the intent of planting malicious content & stealing your client data.

So, to help you prevent spam form submissions and maintain the integrity and functionality of your website, we have come up with this guide that helps you understand all about form spam submissions, and most importantly how to stop spam signups. Let’s dive in!

Form spam refers to unwanted and malicious submissions received through the sign-up forms you use. These fake form submissions are usually a result of spam bots exploiting your website & database.

Form spam can include various types of unwanted content, such as irrelevant or promotional messages, fake sign-ups, links to malicious websites, attempts to exploit vulnerabilities in the website's security, and even stealing personal information.

Spam bots use various techniques to bypass security measures & generate fake form submissions.

These bots work by automatically filling out web forms, typically using fake or stolen information. They can be programmed to target specific types of websites, including e-commerce sites, social media platforms, and online forums.

Once a spam bot has successfully filled out a web form, it can then send spam messages or create fake user accounts on the targeted website, which then degrades your website’s performance, user experience, and data quality.

Spam form submissions can be harmful to your website's performance in several ways. From clogging up your email list with fake or inactive email addresses to compromised security. Here’s what damage these spam form submissions can do:

● Poor site performance: If your website is receiving a large number of spam signups on your signup forms, it can negatively impact the site's performance. This is because the server has to work harder to process these signups done by the spam bots, which can slow down the site's loading speed.

● Negative impact on SEO: If your website is receiving a large number of spam bots signups, it can negatively impact your site's SEO. This is because search engines may view your website as being spammy and penalize it in search results.

● Clogged up database/email list: Spam form signups can also clog up your database or contact list with fake or inactive email addresses. This can make it difficult to manage your contacts and send out targeted communications. Moreover, when you try sending out emails to these spam leads, it is likely to give you a high bounce rate & affect the deliverability of your future email campaigns as well.

● High operational costs: Spam submissions eat up the space in your database, and you invest resources on reaching out to these fake leads which increases your overall costs with zero returns.

● Compromised data security: Spam bot signups can also compromise the security of your website. This is because spammers may use fake email addresses or other fraudulent information to sign up, which can put your website and users' information at risk.

● Damaged reputation and lost clients: Finally, spam bot signups can damage your website's reputation and lead to lost clients.

Recognizing spam submissions is crucial to keeping your website secure and running smoothly. But spotting such submissions can be really challenging as spam bots are programmed to mimic human behavior and blend in with legitimate traffic

However, there are some tell-tale signs that can help you recognize form submissions done by spam bots vs actual form submissions done by a real person.

Key indicators that can help you identify fake submissions:

Thus, by looking for unusual behavior, strange referrers, incomplete information, abnormal response time, user agent strings, IP addresses, and human interaction, you can identify and stop spam bots before they cause any damage. Additionally, using a combination of automated tools and manual checks can help you stay ahead of the latest bot threats and keep your website safe.

Now let’s have a closer look at various methods that you can use to stop bots from doing spam signups on your forms and spamming your CRMs.

Spam bots can be a major nuisance when they fill up your web forms with spam, making it difficult to sift through genuine form submissions & leads. However, there are several effective ways to stop bots from signing up on web forms:

It is likely that you have come across a CAPTCHA before. CAPTCHAs typically require the user to perform a task, such as identifying objects in an image or solving a math problem, which bots find difficult to complete accurately. Although some web forms still require this, the process has been simplified to make it more user-friendly.

In essence, CAPTCHA involves adding an intelligent program that enables users to simply check a box confirming that they are humans. This is an easy task for humans, but difficult for spam bots to perform. By adding this step, websites can distinguish between genuine human users and automated bots, thus stopping spam form submissions.

When it comes to blocking spam bots, a firewall can be configured to identify and block traffic from known bot IP addresses. By monitoring and regulating incoming and outgoing traffic under a set of established security rules, a firewall serves as a barrier between your website and external networks.

Various sources provide lists of IP addresses associated with spam bots, and these can be incorporated into the firewall's blacklist. By blocking traffic from these known bot IPs, you can significantly reduce the chances of form spam on your website.

Additionally, a firewall can be set up to detect and block suspicious traffic patterns that are indicative of bot activity. For example, if there is a sudden influx of form submissions from a single IP address or a high frequency of requests within a short period of time, the firewall can flag it as suspicious and take appropriate action, such as blocking or throttling the traffic.

Firewalls also provide additional security features such as deep packet inspection, which examines the content of network packets to detect and block malicious activities. This can help to identify & stop bots that may be using sophisticated techniques to evade detection.

Using honeypots is an effective strategy to stop spam signups. This is a security mechanism that involves creating fake form fields or honeypot fields that are invisible to human users but can be detected by bots.

Since a spam bot can typically scan web forms and automatically fill out all available fields, adding these fields make it easy to understand when a spam bot is filling up your sign-up forms. When a bot encounters a honeypot field and fills it out, it triggers a response that allows you to identify and block the bot.

Honeypots can be implemented by adding additional form fields to your existing web forms and marking them as hidden using CSS or other techniques. However, genuine human users will not be able to see or interact with these fields, whereas spam bots will interact with the honeypot fields.

When a submission is received, the server-side code can check if the honeypot field has been filled. If it has, it indicates bot activity and appropriate actions can be taken, such as blocking the IP address associated with the spam bot and deleting the spam submission.

Real-time data validation is a powerful method to prevent spam signups at the entry level. This method involves verifying user-provided data, such as email addresses and phone numbers, to ensure accuracy and legitimacy. By implementing this approach, you can effectively prevent form spam by fake or invalid contact information.

Services like Clearout.io provide real-time email verification solutions that check the legitimacy of the user by verifying their email address as it is entered on the form. As the user enters their email address in a form, the validation service checks if the address follows the correct format, detect common syntax errors, and verifies the domain's existence and mailbox availability. If an email address is flagged as invalid, the form submission will be rejected, prompting the user to provide a valid email address.

Clearout.io seamlessly integrates with the majority of CRMs and Forms such as HubSpot forms, Jotform, Forminator forms, Fluent forms, Ninja forms, and more, so that you won’t have to worry about spammers attempting to use invalid or non-functioning emails to make fake form submissions.

Implementing real-time data validation not only helps in reducing bot submissions but also enhances the overall quality of the data. It improves the user experience by preventing the need for manual verification later and ensuring that your communication efforts are directed toward genuine users with accurate contact details.

Proxies and Virtual Private Networks(VPNs) are commonly utilized by spam bots to hide their true IP addresses and locations, making it challenging to distinguish them from legitimate users.

Proxies act as intermediaries between the user and the website, masking the user's actual IP address. Similarly, VPNs encrypt and route internet traffic through remote servers, obscuring the user's identity and location. While these technologies provide privacy and security benefits for users, they are also frequently exploited by spam bots for illegitimate purposes.

To combat this, you can employ a filter that cross-references incoming requests against a database of known proxies and VPN IP addresses. Several online resources offer comprehensive lists of such IP addresses, including public proxy and VPN blacklists. By integrating this filtering mechanism into your web forms, you can automatically identify and stop form spam submissions originating from these sources.

Implementing this solution requires regularly updating the list of proxy and VPN IP addresses to ensure accuracy. You can leverage existing APIs or develop scripts to fetch the latest data from reliable sources and maintain an up-to-date blacklist.

Spam bots frequently employ IFrames, which are HTML elements that allow the embedding of external content within a webpage, to host forms on their own sites and automatically submit spam data.

To prevent this misuse and stop bots, you can implement a check for the presence of IFrames during form submission. This can be done through server-side validation or client-side scripting. By examining the structure of the submitted data, you can detect whether the form was loaded within an IFrame.

If the form submission originated from an IFrame, it is likely to be a spam bot attempting to automate submissions. In such cases, you can take appropriate action to block or reject the submission, ensuring that only genuine users who directly access the form are allowed to submit.

Implementing two-factor authentication is one of the easiest and highly effective methods to prevent automated spam form submissions. By adding an additional layer of security, two-factor authentication requires users to provide not only their standard login credentials but also a verification code sent to their phone or email.

Hence, when a user attempts to submit a form, they are prompted to enter the verification code received on their registered device. This ensures that only users with valid access to their registered phone number or email address can complete the submission process. Spam bots, lacking the ability to receive and enter the verification code, are unable to proceed, effectively blocking their automated spam form submissions.

Moreover, implementing this method demonstrates a commitment to protecting user data and maintaining the integrity of your signup forms and websites. It instills user confidence in the security measures implemented, ensuring that only genuine users can access and submit forms.

Blocking the form once it has been filled out is a simple yet effective strategy to stop bots from repeatedly submitting the same form. By implementing this measure, you ensure that only one submission is allowed per user or session. Once a form is successfully submitted, it becomes inaccessible or disabled, thereby preventing spam form submissions.

This approach helps maintain the integrity of the form data and prevents spam bots from overwhelming your system with multiple submissions. It also minimizes the risk of duplicate or irrelevant entries, improving the overall quality and usefulness of the collected data.

By blocking the form after the initial submission, you also save server resources, reduce processing time, and provide a better user experience by avoiding unnecessary repetition.

Capturing the IP address of each submission helps you create a valuable reference point for detecting and preventing malicious activity. Analyzing the recorded IP addresses allows you to identify patterns and distinguish between legitimate users and potential spam bots.

If you notice a high volume of submissions originating from a particular IP address or a range of suspicious IP addresses, you can take proactive measures to block or restrict access from those sources.

Additionally, IP address data can be cross-referenced with known lists of both IP addresses or blacklists to further enhance your spam bots prevention efforts. By comparing the recorded IP addresses against these lists, you can automatically block or flag submissions coming from IP addresses recognized as spam sources.

This approach helps to continuously improve your spam bots detection capabilities, as it allows you to adapt and update your defenses based on the evolving behavior of spam bots and spammers.

Stopping bots from spamming websites and your sign-up forms are crucial for maintaining the integrity of your website and protecting user data. And the above-mentioned strategies not only deter spam form submissions but also enhance the user experience by ensuring that genuine users can easily sign up without interference.

By safeguarding your forms from automated spam bot submissions, you maintain the quality of your data, protect your website's performance, and preserve your reputation.

Remember, staying vigilant and continuously updating your defenses against evolving bot technologies is essential. By combining multiple prevention methods and monitoring your forms regularly, you can effectively thwart spam bots and keep your sign-up forms secure.