How to stop spam emails being sent through Contact Form 7 - Clook Internet (2023)

How to stop spam emails being sent through Contact Form 7 - Clook Internet (1)

We have seen cyber security feature prominently in the news recently following the WannaCry ransomware attack. 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. This article details a number of steps you can take to put an end to unsolicited mailings…

Install Akismet

Akismet checks your comments and contact form submissions against a global database of spam to prevent your site from publishing malicious content. The plug-in automatically checks all comments and filters out the ones that look like spam.

To activate you will need to register with Akismet and obtain an API Key. These keys are free for blogs and personal websites.

Install the Contact Form 7 Honeypot Plugin

This addition to Contact Form 7 adds basic honeypot anti-spam functionality to thwart spambots.

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. Using this method they somewhat blindly fill in fields, regardless of whether the field should be filled in or not. 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.

Add reCAPTCHA

I must have spent a good couple of hours searching for an easy to use Captcha plug in. After many failed attempts I stumbled on Contact Form 7’s own built in form. To access, simply navigate to ‘Contact’ on the left hand menu bar and select ‘Integration’. You will be presented with a link to google.com/recaptcha – You will need to sign up to gain an API key. Next, add a shortcode to your contact form and reCAPTCHA is displayed.

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(Video) Contact Form 7 Tutorial

These 3 easy steps provide a great barrier against spam and malicious emails being sent via your website’s contact form.

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How to stop spam emails being sent through Contact Form 7 - Clook Internet (3)

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(Video) Creating A Contact Form Using Contact Form 7 WordPress Plugin | Contact Form 7 Tuts Part 1

FAQs

How do I stop spam emails from sending through Contact Form 7? ›

Step #1: Edit any CF7 form and click on Antispam Settings tab. Step #2: Add the emails, email's domain and/or and/or words and phrases as comma seperated values that you want to block. Step #3: Enter the message to be shown to the spammers or bots in 'Set your error message' field.

Why are my contact form 7 emails going to spam? ›

Emails sent from Contact Form 7 can be considered spam for a number of reasons, and get rejected at many points during the email sending and receiving process, in addition to your spam folder. This is usually due to the From: email address used or email content.

What is the best spam blocker for Contact Form 7? ›

If you just want to add one method to reduce Contact Form 7 spam, then I recommend Akismet. This is the best standalone solution as it's so powerful and comprehensive. You can use it whether you're a WordPress expert or a beginner. It can make a real difference to your WordPress contact form spam.

Does Akismet work with contact form 7? ›

Once you have your account and your API key is set up you can move on to integrating the spam protection into Contact Form 7. As mentioned before, Akismet is primarily for preventing spam comments, not form submissions. We do however, have three common contact form fields to which we can attach the Akismet code.

How do I block a contact from sending me emails? ›

When you block a sender, messages they send you will go to your Spam folder.
  1. On your Android phone or tablet, open the Gmail app .
  2. Open the message.
  3. At the top-right of the message, tap More .
  4. Tap Block [sender].

How do I stop spam emails automatically? ›

How to block emails in Gmail
  1. Open the unwanted email.
  2. Click the More Options (...) button beside the sender details.
  3. Click Block "Sender"
  4. Click Block to confirm when prompted, and Gmail will automatically mark the message as spam.

Why am I suddenly getting a lot of spam emails? ›

Spammers buy email addresses from special providers in bulk to add them to their mailing lists. If you've noted a sudden increase in the number of spam emails landing in your account, there's a high chance that your address was part of a list recently sold to one or more scammers.

Can you stop a constant contact email? ›

Once the email starts sending, you can't stop or recall it. If your email has already sent, it can be copied and resent to the same list with corrections.

How do I block an IP address from Contact Form 7? ›

Contact Form 7 can also utilize it to blocklist specific words or IP addresses. Disallowed list is quite simple to use; just log-into the WordPress admin screen, move to the menu Settings > Discussion, and then you'll find the Disallowed Comment Keys section in the middle of the screen.

What is the number to stop spam? ›

Visit DoNotCall.gov or call 1-888-382-1222 to verify the status of, or unsubscribe, your phone number on the registry. Placing your phone number on this national registry will stop telemarketing sales calls. But you might still receive calls from scammers and robocallers. Some telemarketing calls are still permitted.

Does Akismet stop contact form spam? ›

Akismet integrates with several popular contact form plugins to help stop spam arriving via the forms on your site. Some of these integrations are automatic, but others require a bit of configuration.

Does contact form 7 use cookies? ›

On a WordPress page with a Contact Form 7 (CF7) form, the user has to allow all cookies before the CF7 form can be sent. E.g. If a user hasn't clicked anything on the CookieBot part yet, and tries to send a CF7 (say a contact form), the CF7 throws an error (Something went wrong, please try again later).

What is the difference between spam and ham Akismet? ›

Spam = bad comments; HAM = legitimate comments.

Why do blocked emails still come through? ›

Blocking someone stops their email from coming to your mailbox. If email from a blocked sender still appears in your Inbox, the sender might be: Changing their email address. Create an Inbox rule to pick up common words in your Inbox email and move them to the Deleted Items folder.

Does blocking email contact work? ›

Block a sender

The blocked person can still send you mail, but if anything from his or her email address makes it to your email account, it's immediately moved to the Junk Email folder. Future messages from this sender will go to your Junk Email folder or End-User Quarantineif enabled by your administrator.

How do I block emails that are not mine? ›

Open a message from the sender you would like to stop. Click More (the three vertical dots next to the Reply button) and select Block [sender's name]. A pop-up window will appear and ask you if you want to Block the sender's address and move all future messages from it to the Spam folder.

Will I eventually stop getting spam emails? ›

It's important to note, however, that you will never be able to stop all spam mail. Since sending spam is so easy, many scammers will never stop using it, even if it often doesn't work. Still, if you take the right precautions, you can trim your incoming spam emails to a manageable amount. Here's how.

Why am I getting so many spam emails all of a sudden 2022? ›

But, if you suddenly started receiving dozens of spam emails, chances are, your address has been exposed. Websites like Have I Been Pwned? check if your personal data was compromised. These services work like search engines — just enter your email address and they will look through exposed data.

How do spammers get my email address? ›

Crawling the web for the @ sign – Spammers and cybercriminals use sophisticated tools to scan the web and harvest email addresses. If you publicly post your email address online (forums, Facebook etc), a spammer will find it. Another tactic employed by spammers to discover email addresses is to search common sources.

Should I delete suspended emails Constant Contact? ›

Because repeatedly sending to the same non-existent address can negatively impact deliverability for yourself and all of our customers, Constant Contact doesn't attempt to send to any Suspended addresses. We recommend that you remove them from your list.

Can I cancel Constant Contact online? ›

In order to cancel your Constant Contact subscription, you will need to call the Constant Contact customer support team at 866.289. 2101. Please note, if you are required to have Financial Archiving, you will want to reach out to your compliance department first to see if you will need to keep this subscription active.

How do I delete a Constant Contact account? ›

If you wish to cancel your Constant Contact account, you can do so by calling our Support team at the appropriate number below: US & Canada (toll free): 855-229-5506. UK (toll free): 0808-234-0945.

How do I block my phone and IP addresses from being tracked? ›

Three ways to hide your IP
  1. Use a VPN. A VPN is an intermediary server that encrypts your connection to the internet — and it also hides your IP address. ...
  2. Use Tor. Comprising thousands of volunteer-run server nodes, Tor is a free network that conceals your identity online via multiple layers of encryption. ...
  3. Use a proxy.
Apr 8, 2020

How do I stop someone from using my IP address? ›

There are essentially two methods you can choose from to hide your IP address. One is using a proxy server, and the other is using a virtual private network (VPN). Either one will be sufficient, but there are a few cons associated with proxy servers that make VPNs a more optimal choice for many.

How do I block an IP address from contacting me? ›

Block a range of IP addresses
  1. Go to Clarity > Settings > IP blocking, and select Block IP address.
  2. On the Block IP address screen, make your selections and select Add. Name: Enter a friendly name to identify the range of IP addresses. Block my current IP: Check the box if you want to exclude your IP address.
Jan 19, 2023

Does it do any good to block spam numbers? ›

If someone is already breaking the law by robocalling you without permission, there's a good chance it's a scam. At the very least, it's a company you don't want to do business with. Call blocking can help stop robocalls from scammers.

What happens if you dial 622? ›

What happens if you dial 622? T-Mobile Scam Block: A default-off tool that prevents T-Mobile customers from receiving scam calls. Activate from your T-Mobile account, in the latest Name ID app, or dial #622# from your T-Mobile phone. Offered to customers at no extra cost.

Can you block all spam numbers? ›

On your device, open the Phone app . Spam and Call Screen. Turn See caller & spam ID on or off. Optional: To block spam calls on your phone, turn on "Filter spam calls." You don't get missed call or voicemail notifications, but filtered calls are in your call history, and you can check your voicemail.

Is contact form 7 secure? ›

WordPress Plugin Contact Form 7 is prone to a security bypass vulnerability. Exploiting this issue may allow attackers to perform otherwise restricted actions and subsequently predict next values of the content of CAPTCHA. WordPress Plugin Contact Form 7 version 4.1 is vulnerable; prior versions may also be affected.

Why do bots spam contact forms? ›

Why Do Bots Spam Forms? Bots spam forms to try and spread malware, phishing links, or sales messages. Since most website owners don't publish their email addresses, using forms is an easier way for people to add spam comments.

How do I protect a contact form from spam? ›

Ask a simple question

Adding an extra field at the end of the form with a question can prevent most spam messages. For example, it can be a simple math question, such as “What is 2 + 3?”, or “What's the first letter of the word computer?”.

How do I stop multiple submits Contact Form 7? ›

Contact form 7 prevent duplicate or multiple submission
  1. Install cfdb plugin.
  2. Add code to the function.php.
  3. Test the integration.
Mar 21, 2022

Why is my website contact form getting spammed? ›

The reason is, spambots trolling websites looking for web forms to submit also seek out email addresses they can harvest and use as a way to spam others. Of course, you can always fight spambots using a WordPress plugin like Email Address Encoder to protect your email addresses and mailto links.

How do I stop automatic form submission? ›

We can stop the form from submission by giving the "return false;" value to the onsubmit event. Giving this value to the event makes the form return nothing and prevent it from submission as well as refreshing the browser.

Can Contact Form 7 send to multiple emails? ›

Contact form 7 sends emails to multiple recipients. We can send emails to selectable or conditional email addresses by shortcode. We can send emails by Bcc (blind carbon copy) or Cc (carbon copy).

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