CleanTalk's blog

Author: Denis Shagimuratov

Paid Membership Subscriptions spam protection in 5 minutes
CleanTalk added spam protection for Paid Membership Subscriptions forms using direct form integration. So in case, you prefer using this type of contact forms be sure to use the most effective Anti-Spam plugin. Read the guide below and learn 4 steps to protect all your contact forms from spam.

Once the CleanTalk Anti-Spam plugin is installed it starts to protect all of the existing forms on your WordPress website. It may not only be Paid Membership Subscriptions Forms but also many others.

Download CleanTalk Anti-Spam plugin | Download Paid Membership Subscriptions

How to install CleanTalk Anti-Spam plugin

To install the Anti-Spam plugin, go to your WordPress admin panel → Plugins → Add New.

Then enter «CleanTalk» in the search box and click the Install button for «Spam protection, Anti-Spam, FireWall by CleanTalk».

After installing the plugin, click the «Activate»‎ button.

After it is done go to the plugin settings and click the «Get Access Key Automatically» button. Then just click the «Save Settings»‎ button.

That’s it! From now you How to completely protect your Contact Forms from spam.

How to check Paid Membership Subscriptions Forms Spam Protection

You can test the work of Anti-Spam protection for your Contact Forms by using a test email s @ cleantalk.org (without spaces). First, open the form in an Incognito browser tab. Fill in all the required form fields and send a form. After submitting the form, you will see a block message about the block on the form submission.

screen

If you have any questions, add a comment and we will be happy to help you.

Create your CleanTalk account – Register now and protect your Contact Forms from spam in 5 minutes

Update

The protection works only for website visitors, not for website admins. Be sure to test the form protection using Incognito mode.

Additional features
- CleanTalk protects all forms at once: comments, registrations, feedbacks, contacts, reviews.
- Installation takes about 1-2 minutes.
- Smart 99% protection against spambots.
- Always online – 24/7 technical support.
- Logs, SpamFireWall, personal lists, country filters, stop-words, and many others.
Discover the complete list of CleanTalk Anti-Spam plugin features here.
March 5, 2025
Malware Auto-Cure Update: Enhanced Threat Treatment and Logging
The latest update to Malware Auto-Cure System in the CleanTalk Security Plugin introduces significant improvements in threat detection and remediation, ensuring a more effective and reliable security solution.
- Fixed the treatment process when a file may contain multiple threats.
- Fixed the treatment process when a file can only be partially cured.
- Added detailed logging of automatic treatment results.
- Added responses to the initiation of manual treatment.
- Fixed an issue where a file could never be treated due to missing instructions. Now, if an instruction becomes available after a failed treatment attempt, the treatment will succeed.
The update strengthens our commitment to proactive cybersecurity, reducing infection persistence and ensuring a higher success rate in malware remediation.
February 23, 2025
FiboSearch Spam Protection
CleanTalk added spam protection for FiboSearch Search Forms for WooCommerce in the CleanTalk Anti-Spam plugin using direct form integration. So in case, you prefer using search forms be sure to use the most effective Anti-Spam plugin. Read the guide below and learn 4 steps to protect all your contact forms from spam.

Once the CleanTalk Anti-Spam plugin is installed it starts to protect all of the existing forms on your WordPress website. It may not only be FiboSearch but also many others.

Download CleanTalk Anti-Spam plugin | Download FiboSearch

How to install CleanTalk Anti-Spam plugin

To install the Anti-Spam plugin, go to your WordPress admin panel → Plugins → Add New.

Then enter «CleanTalk» in the search box and click the Install button for «Spam protection, Anti-Spam, FireWall by CleanTalk».

After installing the plugin, click the «Activate»‎ button.

After it is done go to the plugin settings and click the «Get Access Key Automatically» button. Then just click the «Save Settings»‎ button.

That’s it! From now you How to completely protect your FiboSearch from spam.

If you have any questions, add a comment and we will be happy to help you.

Create your CleanTalk account – Register now and protect your Contact Forms from spam in 5 minutes

Additional features
- CleanTalk protects all forms at once: comments, registrations, feedback, contacts and reviews.
- Installation takes about 1-2 minutes.
- Smart 99% protection against spambots.
- Always online – 24/7 technical support.
- Logs, SpamFireWall, personal lists, country filters, stop-words, and many others.
Discover the complete list of CleanTalk Anti-Spam plugin features here.
February 23, 2025
Our client’s review: NANIROSSI.IT

We continue sharing our clients’ reviews and today’s great review is kindly brought to you by Matteo Mazzei from nanirossi.it on Trustpilot.

usefull and simply to install WP plugin

Screenshot 2025 02 03 172042

February 3, 2025
Our client’s review: UPWITHDOWN.BG

We continue sharing our clients’ reviews and today’s great review is kindly brought to you by Borislav from upwithdown.bg on WordPress.

Perfect!

I tested so many plugins to stop spam registrations but only CleanTalk worked!!!

Just install it and spam stopped immediately.

Thank you so much!!!

December 16, 2024
Decorate your website forms for the holidays

New Year is coming and we’ve got some holiday spirit news for you!

We are launching an option for the Anti-Spam plugin, which adds special designs for your WordPress websites’ standard comment forms, including holiday designs. Not only does this attract attention in your comment form, but it also is an active protection against bots and strengthens your site’s defense.

We are actively working on this option and you can check an example of the form design in the comments below this post. The option is currently in beta but is available in the Anti-Spam plugin starting from version 6.47, which has already been released.

Please write, what you think about the option in the comments below, we really want your opinion.

How to enable decorated forms

Step 1: Go to the Anti-Spam plugin Settings and click on the Advanced settings link.

Step 2: Enable the Holiday form decoration option by switching it to on. Then press the Save changes button.

Step 3: Check the result – go to your site and see if the decoration works well. If not – please let us know in the comments below this post.

Post update Feb 02 2025. Announcement: Holiday Form Decoration Feature Removal Due to Low Demand

December 12, 2024
Thank You for 3,000 Reviews!

We are beyond grateful to announce that, thanks to you, we’ve hit 3,000 reviews on WordPress.org! This milestone reflects your trust, support, and shared journey with us.

Every review is more than just feedback – it’s a story, a connection, sometimes mistakes =) and a reminder of why we do what we do. Your words inspire us to grow, improve, and continue delivering the best.

To each and every one of you, thank you for being part of our community. There are a lot of milestones waiting ahead!

https://wordpress.org/support/plugin/cleantalk-spam-protect/reviews/

November 29, 2024
Security vulnerability in CleanTalk plugins fixed – please update your plugins
There was a security vulnerability, that was discovered in both Anti-Spam (versions <= 6.43.2) and Security & Malware scan (versions <= 2.145). The vulnerability was relevant to some users, who had created an account, but hadn’t inputed the Access Key. The vulnerability was discovered, but wasn’t exploited.

We’ve taken immediate action to address this issue and fixed all the vulnerabilities. The only thing you need to do is to ensure, that you use an up-to-date version of the plugin.

How to update the plugin

To protect your website, please update the plugins to the latest version as soon as possible. This update will ensure that your website is secured against the vulnerability.
1. Log in to your WordPress Dashboard: Access your website’s administrative area.
2. Navigate to “Plugins”: Click on the “Plugins” menu.
3. Update Your Plugins: Look for the available updates for both Anti-Spam and Security plugins. Click the “Update Now” button for each plugin.
We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause. Your security is our top priority, and we appreciate your prompt attention to this matter.

If you have any questions or concerns, please don’t hesitate to drop a comment below or create a private ticket.
November 1, 2024
WordCamp US 2024
Let share a few notes from WCUS2024,
1. Disney moved a few dozens of websites to WordPress. They use SEO to measure value of content/posts, looks like the trust algorithms of search engines to confirm valuables of sites. Here are examples,
  - https://disneyconnect.com/
  - https://disneyparksblog.com/
2. There was a such interesting case of rebuilding https://www.recipetineats.com by https://humanmade.com. They’ve boosted site views from 25M/month to 45M/month. Key moments,
  - Hosting, backend and frontend improvements returned up to 20% of boost.
  - Added schemas for recipes.
  - Used X-Ray to track PHP code. I hope this is link is correct https://github.com/aws-observability/aws-otel-php link to home page of the project.
  - Moved the site to enterprise ready plugins. Under ‘enterprise ready’ they mean superfast, secure and maintainable plugins.
  - They used old platform and design during the rebuilding. They had good data to compare results before and after the project was done.
3. Elementor uses Patchstack to validate reports about vulnerabilities. Elementor has its own ecosystem for working with other plugins; according to them, every 30th plugin created on wordpress.org operates within this ecosystem.
4. Gravatar they are working on creating a “network” profile, not just an avatar. In the future, they see themselves as a Single Sign-On provider. It’s interesting why websites do not widely use Facebook/X for the same purpose—I’m referring to the idea of a network profile. An example of a network profile is https://gravatar.com/ronnie.
  - They updated the plugin for the first time in 12 years: https://wordpress.org/plugins/gravatar-enhanced/#description.
  - I would like something similar on our blog and research.
5. I spoke with 6-7 participants, and 3 of them use CleanTalk. Some were even surprised—why aren’t we showcasing our work? 🙂
Bonus

I’ve found a few scenery locations in Portland, OR, here are photos of them as well as me and some of our customers. Thank you guys for a great camp!

Timothy and Zach from BigScoots.

Portland Japanese Garden.

PDX.

NorhtBridge burger in Bdridgetown BBQ. The best burger I ever had!

Jonahtan and co from Kiinsta.

Steel Bridge.
October 24, 2024
9 new fields added in the Blacklists Database
There are several new fields in both Blacklists API and Offline Database. It will help you see the exact time of the checks and a few other things.

Offline Database

In the Offline Database there are 4 new fields for the IP files:
- IP updated time – time from the corresponding date fields. Format: HH:MM:SS
- Net updated time – time from the corresponding date fields. Format: HH:MM:SS
- AS updated time – time from the corresponding date fields. Format: HH:MM:SS
- Last updated – date and time of the last status update. Format: YYYY-MM-DD HH:MM:SS
And 3 new fields for email files:
- Submitted time – time from the corresponding date fields. Format: HH:MM:SS
- Updated time – time from the corresponding date fields. Format: HH:MM:SS
- Last updated – date and time of the last status update. Format: HH:MM:SS
spam_check() API method

As for the spam_check() API method, there were two new fields added for email checking:
- in_antispam_updated – date and time of the last status update. Format: YYYY-MM-DD HH:MM:SS. API response example,
JSON
```
{"data":{"welcome1@cleantalk.org":{"frequency": 0,"submitted": "2024-08-05 09:13:35","updated": "2024-08-05 09:13:35",
"spam_rate": 0,"exists": 1,"spam_frequency_24h": 0,"appears": 0,"disposable_email": 0,
"in_antispam_updated": "2024-08-05 09:13:35","in_antispam_previous": 1,"sha256": "be25f8b7b9fa76bdf8a2a3275f60dd7603c758598e77b332857a9867f0d6598e"}}}
```
- in_antispam_previous – the previous Anti-Spam blacklist status. It can show if the record was blacklisted or not (0 – wasn’t blacklisted, 1 – was blacklisted, NULL – no change). Format: 1. API response example,
JSON
```
{"data":{"8.8.8.8":{"domains_count": 3011,"domains_list": null,"spam_rate": 1,"submitted": "2022-02-09 21:05:06",
"updated": "2024-10-11 15:25:25","frequency": 6,"in_antispam": 0,"in_security": 0,"in_antispam_previous": 1,
"in_antispam_updated": "2024-03-05 16:20:44","spam_frequency_24h": 0,"appears": 0,"network_type": "hosting",
"country": "US","sha256": "838c4c2573848f58e74332341a7ca6bc5cd86a8aec7d644137d53b4d597f10f5"}}}
```
Learn more about using the Blacklists Database API in our Help.
October 18, 2024

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