Website code boxes

C2 RIBS · 02 April 2009, 19:46

I have no idea what they are called, but I am looking for a code box to put on my contacts page which creates a random number/letter which has to be match typed before sending the e mail to stop me getting so much spam mail, similar to ribnet search page if not logged in. Hope this makes sense!

Poly · 02 April 2009, 22:19

Quote:

Originally Posted by C2 RIBS

I have no idea what they are called, but I am looking for a code box to put on my contacts page which creates a random number/letter which has to be match typed before sending the e mail to stop me getting so much spam mail, similar to ribnet search page if not logged in. Hope this makes sense!

C2 its called a Captcha

benc · 06 April 2009, 22:55

Ill give you a hand to sort it if you like? Give me a shout

John Kennett · 07 April 2009, 05:43

Quote:

Originally Posted by C2 RIBS

I have no idea what they are called, but I am looking for a code box to put on my contacts page which creates a random number/letter which has to be match typed before sending the e mail to stop me getting so much spam mail, similar to ribnet search page if not logged in. Hope this makes sense!

RIBnet is using reCAPTCHA which is working well. Should be a simple job for someone like BenC to add it to your site.

BogMonster · 11 April 2009, 20:48

We use Recaptcha on www.lr4x4.com too (I'm a moderator over there) and both our site and another commercial website run by a LR4x4 member saw automated spambot registrations and junk email drop from loads to almost nil the moment Recaptcha went live - it's miles better than any of the others.

C2 RIBS · 28 April 2009, 16:56

Ok I have now been using Captcha for over a week on my contacts page but I am still getting 50-60 spam mails each day. What do I do next to eliminate this curse?

Poly · 28 April 2009, 22:59

Quote:

Originally Posted by C2 RIBS

Ok I have now been using Captcha for over a week on my contacts page but I am still getting 50-60 spam mails each day. What do I do next to eliminate this curse?

are they still coming through your contacts page?

Edit - just checked your website... ...you have an info@... address on there with simply a Mailto: link. This is bad! Spammers harvest email addresses (its all automated) from websites with them listed like this. The bad news is that the info@.... address will now be on dozens of spam lists and so no matter what you do now its going to keep getting crap at least for a year or two!

First of all - does anyone legit use info@.... or do they all use e.g. C2ribs@.... if info@ is only used for web enquiries I would close that mail address down, and use something like enquiries@ or webinfo@ instead. Take the link off the contacts page (and anywhere else). Don't put the new one on like that. If you really want a real email address rather than just a form then check with whichever content management system you have if they have an email cloaking module you can turn on. It won't be perfect but it will help.

Beware when signing up for pages which advertise your business - many will simply include mailto: links with no cloaking for you.

If you NEED to keep info@ live - then it will be harder... and you need to get some serious spam filtering software to help.

Bigmuz7 · 29 April 2009, 22:01

Quote:

Originally Posted by Polwart

Edit - just checked your website... ...you have an info@... address on there with simply a Mailto: link. This is bad!

hmmm .. not sure about this one .. I have a 'contact us here box' on my web site and I don't get that much spam, the reason being.. someone has to click on the box to get the address .. I think .. which bots cannot do .. however I think Polwart is right that if you have been exposed to spam at some point or other .. it will take a few months to die down as your address ceases to be propagated throughout the spam networks

Poly · 30 April 2009, 09:01

Quote:

Originally Posted by Bigmuz7

hmmm .. not sure about this one .. I have a 'contact us here box' on my web site and I don't get that much spam, the reason being.. someone has to click on the box to get the address .. I think .. which bots cannot do .. however I think Polwart is right that if you have been exposed to spam at some point or other .. it will take a few months to die down as your address ceases to be propagated throughout the spam networks

Not sure how you are keeping your's protected Murray - but certainly C2's is the worst possible combination:

a standard mailto link
the address actually in the displayed HTML
a very predictable address - there is probably an 80% chance that info@almost.anything is a real address: we get a lot of mail to our server for other predictable addresses which we have never used - so I assume they take a list of domain and a list of predicatble names/addresses and just try mixing them up.

Bigmuz7 · 30 April 2009, 17:12

Quote:

Originally Posted by Polwart

Not sure how you are keeping your's protected Murray - but certainly C2's is the worst possible combination:

Um

Scratch what I just posted

.. I forgot, I also have a different mail address from my web host which I never use , so I checked it today and it had 743 spam messages in it

funny that, cos the address I have on the website which is linked underneath a 'contact us' button hardly gets any spam at all .. maybe there is something in this ?

My web page is hosted with a name that has no reference to my company, and I simply have two domain names registered that point to it ... hope that makes sense

Ok Guys .. I'm all ears