CleanTalk's blog

Author: Denis Shagimuratov

Prevent for User Enumeration on WordPress
I’m happy to announce option Prevent collecting of authors logins which you can find under settings,
```
WordPress console -> Settings -> Security by CleanTalk -> General Settings
```
This option disables users IDs enumeration in your WordPress. So, it stands against brute force for authors names. Here is example how the enumeration works in the plain WordPress,
```
https://blog.cleantalk.org/?author=1
```
By executing such links, an attacker brute forces users list on a site to get valid IDs and use it in further attacks.

If you turn option Prevent collecting of authors logins on, the plugin disable enumeration by showing a blank page instead of valid page of author. URL for the blank page like this,
```
https://blog.cleantalk.org/author/honeypot_login_1753432662.9124
```
That’s it! Drop questions in the comment form down below.
July 25, 2025
CleanTalk Anti-Spam is now available for Everest Forms users
I’d love to announce that CleanTalk Anti-Spam technology is now available to Everest forms users as a built-in Anti-Spam solution.

You can find it under Settings,
```
WordPress console -> Everest Forms -> Settings -> Integrations -> CleanTalk
```
Screenshot 2025 07 11 at 12.53.52 PM

CleanTalk with Everest forms supports almost same stack of technologies like native Anti-Spam plugin by CleanTalk,
- Automated filtration bots.
- Filter spammers by IP, Email, IP networks.
- Real-time email verification for existence, fake or real email.
- Anti-Spam logs up to 45 days.
- Tech support, 27/7.
- Customize message to forbidden visitors.
- Delegate control of your websites to other accounts at CleanTalk.org.
We’ve been testing this integration since May 12th, 2025, it’s firm and stable by now. Anyway, if you have any questions or issues, just drop a message in the comment section down below.

In order to activate the protection, add a new website to the Dashboard or sign up for an account.

Have questions? Just drop a message in the comment form down below.
July 11, 2025
OpenMage Spam Protection for Magento
Online stores are frequent targets for spam registrations, fake orders, and malicious bots. OpenMage spam attacks waste your time and server resources, skew analytics and business data, and increase security risks.

Good news for OpenMage owners! Anti-spam protection is finally available for OpenMage on Magento. Thanks to a contribution by our client ioweb-gr, you can easily integrate CleanTalk’s spam protection into your store right away.

What is CleanTalk Anti-Spam

CleanTalk Anti-Spam is a cloud-based invisible spam protection service trusted by over 1,000,000 websites. Whether you run a blog, a corporate site, or, especially, an eCommerce store,

CleanTalk Anti-Spam automatically screens all incoming submissions, registrations, and orders, blocking spam without using intrusive captchas or complicated workflows.

Install OpenMage spam protection

The integration for OpenMage spam protection is freely available here: download the OpenMage Integration.

Here’s a quick note from the developer about the built integration:
- Support for OpenMage versions with PHP ^8.1
- Implement client class for facilitating communications with the API that can use GET / POST (Form) | POST (JSON)
- Separate concerns in reusable classes for each endpoint
- Minor optimizations for properly fetching the key
- Add customer attribute to mark customers as legitimate or spam users for easier cleanup
- Add cron job to automate checking customers. Subject to change if better endpoint is found as it gives a lot of false positives.
Feel free to use the solution. Don’t leave spam a chance!
July 9, 2025
Our client’s review: LABTOPIAFARMS.COM

We continue sharing our clients’ reviews and today’s one is kindly brought to you by David from https://labtopiafarms.com on Trustpilot.

Awesome! It works!

I’ve used clean talk probably for about 15 years, used it on dozens of sites, and while running both antispam and the security modules the sites were being attacked constantly, but the Country level blocking snips that probing off before they can try to compromise the site. No more malicious registrations or submissions. The support has been consistent and excellent, a rarity indeed.

July 8, 2025
Floating Chat Widget (Chaty) Spam protection for WordPress in 5 minutes
Struggling with spam flooding your Chaty Floating Widget on WordPress? You’re not alone — it’s a common headache. The source of spam are only these two widgets and there is a plugin that protects both of them, and does it without using annoying CAPTCHAs.

The Anti-Spam by CleanTalk grants cloud protection from spam, is absolutely invisible to users and runs in background. Which might be pretty useful – 300,000+ active installations and 3,000+ reviews on WordPress can’t lie. It contains many features such as logging for your control, SpamFirewall, stop words and much more.

Step 1: Install the Anti-Spam plugin

CleanTalk is a powerful plugin that blocks spam silently in the background. It also has direct integration with Chaty Floating Chat and here’s how to set it up:
1. Firstly, to install the Anti-Spam plugin, go to your WordPress admin panel → Plugins → Add New. You can also download it in the WordPress catalog.
2. Then enter «СleanTalk» in the search box and click the Install button for «Spam protection, Anti-Spam, FireWall by CleanTalk».
3. After installing the plugin, click the «Activate»‎ button.
4. After it is done go to the plugin settings and click the «Get Access Key Automatically» button.
5. Then go to Advanced settings in the right-bottom and find the “Protect external forms” and switch it on. It is needed to protect WhatsApp widget inside Chaty from spam. Then just click the «Save Settings»‎ button.
From now Anti-Spam starts protecting all forms on your site including Chaty without any extra setup.

Step 2: Test Spam Protection of your forms

Use this simple test to confirm that CleanTalk is active:
- At first, open your form in an Incognito browser tab
- Use this test email: stop_email@example.com
- Submit the form
If the plugin is working, you’ll see a message that the submission was blocked. That means the Anti-Spam plugin now filters our your Chaty spam!

Important: You must test in Incognito because admins are not blocked by default.

Enjoy the result!

If you have any questions, add a comment and we will be happy to help you.
July 8, 2025
Anti-Spam for Backdrop CMS

Here is an Anti-Spam module for Backdrop CMS https://backdropcms.org/project/cleantalk

This module has been ported by an enthusiast CleanTalk user Richard Peacock. Thank you so much, Richard!

Instructions to get it live you will find by the link above. Have any questions? Just drop a comment in the section down below

July 7, 2025
Phone numbers encoded by WordPress plugin
We’ve extended protection against crawling personal data on public pages. Since version 6.55 plugin encodes phone numbers as well as emails on any public page in your WordPress.

Encoding works by two switches. Either you turn on global encoding for all content on the site,
```
WordPress console -> Settings -> Anti-Spam by CleanTalk -> Advanced Settings -> Encode contact data -> Encode phone numbers.
```
Here are full manual how to use this option https://cleantalk.org/help/email-encode

Or use short code below to encode a specific phone number in article,
```
[apbct_encode_data] +1 11*********44 [/apbct_encode_data]
```
Here are more details for the short code https://cleantalk.org/help/using-shortcodes-hooks-to-encode-contact-data

Here is an example of encoded phone number,

We are happy to assist you at +1***********30.

That’s all, phone number is encoded and protected against crawling by spam bots!

Finally, In the Anti-Spam log track interactions (encoding contact data by real visitors) with contact data on a website. There you find date, time and location of visitors who saw your phone number on a site https://cleantalk.org/my/show_requests

Screenshot 2025 06 20 at 12.49.53 PM

Have a question? Just drop the comment in the form down below. Cheers!
June 25, 2025
WP CLI support in Security by CleanTalk (WordPress plugin)
We’ve added to Security by CleanTalk support of WP CLI commands. The list of commands,
- Service setup, including interactions with cloud to get an API key and synchronization.
- Various settings of the plugin.
- Settings for templates.
- Malware scanner commands.
Full guide with examples is here https://cleantalk.org/help/security-wp-cli

It works on plugins starting version 2.156 which has been released on May 19, 2025.

Have questions? Please drop us a message in the comment form down below.
June 23, 2025
Anti-spam protection for WS Form Lite has been released!
We have protected one more contact form for WordPress, this is WP Forms lite,

WS Form LITE – Drag & Drop Contact Form Builder for WordPress

Anti-Spam by CleanTalk (plugin) protects all kinds of submissions posted through this form against spambots and spam posted by real visitors (with some rate of false/negatives).

Anyway, to set up the protection follow steps,
- Download and install WS Form Lite https://wordpress.org/plugins/ws-form/
- Download and install Anti-Spam by CleanTalk https://cleantalk.org/help/install-wordpress
- Go to WordPress console -> Settings -> Anti-Spam by CleanTalk.
- Click ‘GET ACCESS KEY’ button.
- Wait until the plugin synced data with the cloud.
- Copy a form short code of from WordPress console -> WS Form -> Forms.
  - For example: [ws_form id=”1″]
Screenshot 2025 06 16 at 12.46.47 PM
- Post the short code in any post/page on your site.
Screenshot 2025 06 16 at 12.47.05 PM
- Go to the page as a regular website visitor (you must be logged out from WordPress console, for example use Anonymous mode in your browser).
- Test the form with whatever First, Last name and use email stop_email@example.com. This is email marked to test “spam” submission.
- If everything is fine, you have a message,
*** Forbidden. Sender blacklisted. Anti-Spam by CleanTalk. ***

Screenshot 2025 06 16 at 12.30.54 PM
- If not, just ask us here https://cleantalk.org/my/support/open
That’s all. Enjoy spam free website!
June 16, 2025
Say Hi to Evgenii — The New Guy on the Block!
Please welcome Evgenii, our new team member! Evgenii is an experienced software developer in web applications field and ready to rock nuts for cleantalk.org.

Here are a few words Evgenii could say about himself and the very first days in the company,
- Can you tell briefly about yourself? What are you interested in, what do you live by?
Over the past few years, I’ve been interested in gaining experience as a digital nomad and exploring different cultures. In my free time, I enjoy camping, spending time outdoors, watching movies, and listening to music. I’m also passionate about topics like cosmology, cybersecurity, cryptocurrencies, decentralized networks, and playing musical instruments.

My favorite movies include Fight Club, The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, and The Dark Knight. As for books, I especially enjoy The Chronicles of Amber by Roger Zelazny and the works of Carlos Castaneda.

Whenever I get the chance, I like to stay active—my favorite sports are swimming, skateboarding, and football.
- What did you find interesting in CleanTalk?
One of my key interests is cybersecurity. Over time, it has evolved from a hobby into a vital necessity for me. As the modern world becomes increasingly intertwined with the digital realm, the boundaries between the real and virtual worlds continue to blur, creating a single, interconnected reality. As a result, cybersecurity is no longer optional—it has become an essential part of everyday life for every modern person.

Unfortunately, this critical issue often receives insufficient attention, both from individuals and even some private companies. That’s why I’m especially grateful for the opportunity to combine my passion with hands-on experience at CleanTalk. I’m excited to contribute to solving the pressing challenges of cybersecurity alongside the CleanTalk team, gain valuable experience in the field, and continue growing professionally in this direction.
- What kind of tasks did you find more challenging in the very first days with us?
One of the first complex and engaging tasks I worked on at CleanTalk was measuring page loading speed. This task involved considering a variety of important factors to make well-informed decisions about optimizing performance and enhancing the user experience.

Another particularly interesting challenge was implementing React into the project to enable smooth rendering of page elements and further improve the user experience. This task was both technically demanding and rewarding, as it required integrating modern technologies into an existing live system—a non-trivial and highly valuable experience.

2025 04 11 11 57 1
- Do you have specific plans for the next few months?
I plan to continue growing and developing in the field of cybersecurity together with the CleanTalk team. To gain more and more experience in this area. To try to improve the CleanTalk project, giving our users more and more confidence and positive experience in working with our products.
- Good start, Evgenii! Personally, I and the CleanTalk staff are happy to work with you as a team!
June 2, 2025

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