As you know, we have direct integration with the most popular contact form plugin – Contact Form 7. Also, you are probably familiar with the Flamingo – a message storage plugin, which doesn’t store submitted messages. Earlier, when using these two plugins simultaneously with CleanTalk Anti-Spam, messages recognized as spam would end up in the “spam” folder instead of just being deleted.
After a couple of requests about this, we decided that it would be a great idea not to store messages recognized as spam in Flamingo. So now we’ve made the “Save Flamingo Spam entries” option in the Anti-Spam plugin settings. It is enabled by default, but you can turn it off, after which messages recognized as spam will stop being stored in this folder.
How to activate the option
1. Install both Contact Form 7 and Flamingo plugins. The option is displayed only if you have both plugins installed and activated.
2. Go to Anti-Spam plugin settings in your WordPress dashboard
3. Scroll down to “Forms to protect” directory, find the “Save Flamingo spam entries” option and switch it off. The option is switched on by default.
That’s it! Now your messages recognized as spam will not be stored in Flamingo. If you want to see these messages again, just turn this option back on.
We’re writing to inform you that the public widget for CleanTalk Anti-Spam will be removed from the plugin and no longer be supported after August 1, 2024.
What does this mean for you?
The public widget, which is typically displayed on public pages and demonstrates the number of spam attacks, is no longer considered compatible with modern WordPress development practices and has seen low user demand. As a result, we’re removing it from the plugin to ensure optimal performance, streamline the user experience, and focus on core functionalities. This removal also helps us stay aligned with future WordPress versions.
What action should you take?
While the public widget will no longer be available after August 1, 2024, CleanTalk Anti-Spam’s core functionality remains unchanged and will continue to provide robust spam protection for your WordPress site.
Here’s what you can do:
No action required: If you don’t utilize the public widget, you don’t need to take any further action. CleanTalk Anti-Spam will continue to operate seamlessly.
Review alternative widget usage: If you’ve been using the public widget, we recommend exploring alternative methods for interacting with CleanTalk Anti-Spam’s features. These may include accessing settings pages or utilizing shortcodes.
Affiliate Program Guidance
If you’ve been using the public widget to promote the CleanTalk AntiSpam Affiliate program, we recommend transitioning to using Affiliate links along with our banner. This method provides a more streamlined and effective way to promote the program.
To get started with Affiliate links:
Access your CleanTalk Affiliate Dashboard: Log in to your CleanTalk account and navigate to the Affiliate program section.
Generate your Affiliate link: Your unique Affiliate link is provided within the dashboard. Copy this link for use in your promotional materials.
Utilize our Affiliate banner: We offer a visually appealing banner that you can include alongside your Affiliate link. Download the banner from the Affiliate dashboard.
Promote your Affiliate link and banner: Share your Affiliate link and banner on your website, social media channels, or other relevant platforms. When a visitor clicks on your link and signs up for CleanTalk AntiSpam, you’ll earn a commission.
By transitioning to Affiliate links and our banner, you can continue to effectively promote the CleanTalk AntiSpam Affiliate program while aligning with the updated public widget removal.
We understand that change can be challenging, and we appreciate your understanding as we work to enhance the CleanTalk Anti-Spam experience.
If you have any questions or concerns, please don’t hesitate to contact our support team.
Thank you for being a valued CleanTalk Anti-Spam user!
In today’s digital landscape, protecting your WordPress website from spam and malicious activities is paramount. One of the most common tools used to achieve this is CAPTCHA. However, whether to use CAPTCHA or not can be a topic of debate among website owners. This article will explore the pros and cons of using CAPTCHA on your WordPress site, helping you make an informed decision.
What is CAPTCHA?
CAPTCHA, which stands for “Completely Automated Public Turing test to tell Computers and Humans Apart,” is a security measure used to determine whether the user is a human or a bot. It typically requires users to solve puzzles, enter text from distorted images, or check a box to verify their humanity.
Types of CAPTCHA
Before diving into the pros and cons, it’s useful to understand the different types of CAPTCHA you might encounter:
Text-based CAPTCHA Users are asked to enter characters from a distorted image.
Image-based CAPTCHA Users select images that match a given description (e.g., select all images with traffic lights).
Checkbox CAPTCHA (CAPTCHA) Users simply check a box to confirm they are not a robot.
Invisible CAPTCHA This version works in the background and only challenges the user if it detects suspicious behavior.
Pros of Using CAPTCHA on WordPress
Spam Protection Benefit: CAPTCHA effectively prevents automated bots from submitting forms, which is crucial for reducing spam in comments, registration forms, and contact forms. Explanation: Bots often target forms to post spammy content or create fake accounts. CAPTCHA acts as a gatekeeper, allowing only genuine human interactions.
Enhanced Security Benefit: By blocking automated scripts and bots, CAPTCHA adds an extra layer of security to your WordPress site. Explanation: This can be particularly important for sites that process sensitive information or have user registration features, as it helps prevent brute-force attacks and data scraping.
Reduced Server Load Benefit: Limiting spam and bot traffic can reduce the load on your server, improving overall site performance. Explanation: Bots generating excessive requests can slow down your site or even crash it. CAPTCHA helps mitigate this risk by filtering out non-human interactions.
User Verification Benefit: CAPTCHA ensures that submissions (like comments or sign-ups) are made by real users, maintaining the quality and integrity of your site’s content. Explanation: This is especially useful for sites with user-generated content, where maintaining a community of genuine users is crucial.
Flexible Integration Benefit: Many WordPress plugins offer easy CAPTCHA integration for various forms and functionalities. Explanation: Popular plugins like Contact Form 7, WPForms, and others allow you to add CAPTCHA to protect your forms with minimal effort.
Cons of Using CAPTCHA on WordPress
User Experience Impact CAPTCHA can create friction in the user experience, potentially deterring visitors from completing forms or engaging with your site. Users may find solving CAPTCHA puzzles frustrating or time-consuming, leading to higher abandonment rates, especially on mobile devices.
Accessibility Issues CAPTCHA can pose significant challenges for users with disabilities, making it difficult or impossible for them to interact with your site. Visually impaired users, for example, may struggle with image-based CAPTCHAs, while others with cognitive disabilities may find the puzzles confusing. Even audio CAPTCHAs can be problematic for those with hearing impairments.
False Positives Sometimes, legitimate users can be incorrectly flagged as bots, preventing them from completing their intended actions. This can happen due to various reasons, such as users failing to solve the CAPTCHA correctly or using certain browser extensions that interfere with CAPTCHA detection.
Maintenance and Compatibility CAPTCHA implementations may require ongoing maintenance and updates to remain effective and compatible with your WordPress site. As bots evolve, CAPTCHAs must also be updated to stay ahead. Additionally, plugin conflicts or updates can sometimes cause compatibility issues, requiring troubleshooting and technical know-how.
Increased Load Time Adding CAPTCHA can slightly increase page load times, which might impact your site’s performance. Each CAPTCHA requires additional resources to render and validate, which can contribute to longer loading times, particularly if not optimized.
Alternatives to CAPTCHA
Given the potential drawbacks, you might wonder if there are alternatives to CAPTCHA that can provide security without compromising user experience. Here are a few options:
1. Anti-Spam Plugins
How it works: Plugins like CleanTalk analyze form submissions and user behavior to filter out spam without the need for CAPTCHA. Benefit: They offer seamless protection with minimal impact on user experience.
After the Anti-Spam is installed and activated, it protects your website and all forms from spam bots, keeping them from overloading your site. That’s how the website “looks” for spam bots:
Protection of your forms will also triggered even before a form is submitted, thus protecting your forms from getting spammed. That’s how it “looks”:
2. Honeypot Fields
How it works: Hidden form fields are added that human users can’t see but bots will fill out. If these fields are completed, the submission is flagged as spam. Benefit: This method is invisible to users and doesn’t affect their experience.
3. Time-Based Methods
How it works: Measures the time taken to complete a form. Bots typically submit forms almost instantly, whereas humans take longer. Benefit: This is a passive method that doesn’t require any action from the user.
4. JavaScript-Based Solutions
How it works: Uses JavaScript to detect bots based on behavior and patterns that are unusual for human users. Benefit: These solutions operate behind the scenes, making them less intrusive for users.
Conclusion
CAPTCHA is a simple and free tool that will help you eliminate most spam bots. It is very useful for users in the first stage of launching their WordPress website.
However, in the next step, you may need a more advanced solution. For example, one that will give much more protection against spam bots to increase the speed of your site, and also, will be completely invisible to save precious time of your site visitors. As such a solution, we recommend CleanTalk Anti-Spam, a service we have been improving for more than 10 years. The full list of features can be found here.
Consider your audience and the nature of your site when deciding. If your site handles sensitive information or has high spam vulnerability, CAPTCHA could be beneficial. However, for sites focused on user engagement and accessibility, exploring alternatives might be more appropriate.
Spam is an ongoing issue for website administrators, and Joomla sites are no exception. When spam bots target your registration forms, they can flood your database with fake accounts, consume resources, and make managing your user base a nightmare. Thankfully, tools like CleanTalk Anti-Spam can help protect your Joomla registration forms from spam effectively. This comprehensive guide will walk you through the steps to integrate CleanTalk Anti-Spam with your Joomla site and protect Your Joomla registration form from spam
Why Protect Your Joomla Registration Forms?
Before diving into the steps, it’s crucial to understand why protecting your registration forms from spam is essential. Here are some of the primary reasons:
Database Integrity Spam registrations can clutter your database with unnecessary data, making it harder to manage and slower to operate.
Resource Management Spam bots consume server resources, which can slow down your website and increase hosting costs.
User Experience A flood of spam registrations can impact the user experience by making it difficult for genuine users to register and interact with your site.
Security Risks Some spam accounts may be created with malicious intent, aiming to exploit vulnerabilities or distribute malware.
What is CleanTalk Anti-Spam?
CleanTalk is a cloud-based anti-spam solution designed to protect websites from spam bots without relying on traditional CAPTCHA methods. It offers real-time spam protection by checking form submissions against a comprehensive database of known spam activities. CleanTalk is known for its high accuracy, ease of use, and minimal impact on user experience.
Setting Up Registration form protection
To protect your Joomla registration form from spam, follow these steps to set up CleanTalk Anti-Spam:
Step 1. Make a backup of the site files and database!
Step 3. In the main Joomla menu open System → Install → Extensions.
Step 4. Click the “Browse for file” button to upload the archive.
Step 5. After installation, you will see the success message:
Step 6. Go to plugin settings: Extensions → Anti-Spam by CleanTalk, and enable the plugin.
Step 7. In plugin settings press the Get access key automatically button. Admin email address will be used for registration.
If you want to use another address click the button Get access key manually. Fill in the easy registration form and you will receive your key.
Step 8. Enter your Access key in its field, choose protection options, and save settings.
Test Your Registration Form
Test protection with this email address st********@*****le.com. Write a comment, registration, or contact message with this email. Here you should see the plugin respond, like in the screenshot.
You are amazing!
You have successfully installed Anti-Spam and now your registration forms (and all the other forms) are protected from spam. If something went wrong, please let us know in the comments below or create a private ticket.
In April, CleanTalk SpamFireWall achieved a significant milestone by blocking an impressive 777 million bot requests. This accomplishment underscores our commitment to enhancing digital security through cutting-edge technology and vigilant monitoring.
This feat serves as a reminder of the persistent threat posed by automated bots in today’s interconnected world. SpamFireWall plays a crucial role in safeguarding online platforms from exploitation by swiftly identifying and neutralizing suspicious activities.
We owe this success to our team’s dedication and our customers’ support. Their invaluable feedback and collaboration have been instrumental in achieving this remarkable milestone.
You can find our latest spam stats here for those interested in more detailed statistics on bot activity and SpamFireWall’s performance.
SpamFireWall, an optional feature of the CleanTalk Anti-Spam Plugin, enhances website security by blocking access for spam-active IP addresses, effectively denying them entry (via blocking GET requests). By intercepting spambots before they reach the website, SpamFireWall prevents the loading of pages for these malicious bots. This action alleviates the burden on your web server, reducing the load on both the database and server resources.
Moving forward, SpamFireWall remains committed to staying at the forefront of cybersecurity. We will continue to innovate and adapt to emerging threats to ensure a safer digital landscape for all users.
This achievement in April reflects our unwavering resolve to combat cyber threats and uphold the highest standards of digital security. Together, we will continue to protect online ecosystems and instill confidence in users worldwide.
In the expansive domain of WordPress, a critical security flaw has been unveiled within the widely-utilized All-in-One SEO plugin. Known by its identifier, CVE-2024-3368, this vulnerability exposes a concerning loophole that malicious actors can exploit through Stored Cross-Site Scripting (XSS) attacks, jeopardizing the security of numerous websites. The trouble concerns all versions of All-in-One SEO older than 4.6.1.1.
This flaw was unearthed during routine security evaluations, shedding light on a troubling scenario where unauthorized individuals can inject harmful JavaScript code directly into WordPress posts. This unauthorized access allows for the manipulation of administrative privileges, potentially leading to serious repercussions such as website tampering and unauthorized data access.
In response to this alarming revelation, immediate action is crucial. WordPress website owners are strongly advised to promptly update their All-in-One SEO plugin to the latest version, fortified with patches to address this vulnerability. Furthermore, implementing stringent security measures, including regular audits and access controls, is essential to mitigate the risk of exploitation.
Behind the scenes, CleanTalk remains dedicated to safeguarding the WordPress ecosystem. Through vigilant monitoring of plugins and the provision of timely alerts, CleanTalk aims to empower website owners with the necessary tools and knowledge to defend against cyber threats effectively and preserve the integrity of their digital platforms.
Many online comments and reviews are helpful, but some might not be written by real users. A special verification badge could indicate if a comment/review is confirmed to be written by a real person. This might help you decide which reviews to trust more when reading/discussing online.
Why it is important to protect a mobile app from spam bots
Spam bots are a serious threat to your website, but it affects your mobile app just the same. More than 54% of traffic goes from mobile devices and 76% of internet traffic comes from bad bots. This means that bad bots generate up to 41% of your mobile traffic However, we have listed 5 reasons to protect your mobile app from bots and to stop bad bots before harming your app.
Why it is important to protect your mobile app from spam bots
User experience Spam bots can flood your app with fake accounts, comments, and messages, which can eventually lead to degrading the user experience for legitimate users.
Security Spam bots can carry out malicious activities such as spreading malware, phishing attacks, and stealing sensitive information from users.
Resource consumption Spam bots can overwhelm your servers and consume valuable resources, leading to slower performance and increased costs.
Reputation If your app is known for being overrun by spam bots, it can damage your reputation and deter legitimate users from using your app.
Compliance Depending on the nature of your app, you may be required to comply with regulations related to data privacy and security. Allowing spam bots to operate unchecked can put you at risk of violating these regulations.
How it works
The Bot Detector works in the background and is not visible to the user. It does not require the user to confirm that he is not a bot.
How to install your mobile app spam protection
If you need to protect mobile apps from spam, you will definitely need a solution that uses API to check registrations for spam. The Bot Detector service uses the CleanTalk check_bot API method via a special library that you can download and integrate with just 1 line of code. You can check out our detailed instructions on GitHub below.
Fraudulent payments occur when the cardholder has not authorized the transaction. Most fraudulent payments are made using stolen credit card information. When the cardholder notices an unauthorized payment or reviews their card statement, they contact the card issuer to dispute it. It is crucial for businesses accepting online payments to be aware of different types of fraud.
Website owners mainly encounter two types of fraud: purchases made with stolen cards and card testing.
Stolen Cards: This type of fraud involves using stolen credit card data to make purchases online. When the cardholder discovers fraudulent activity, they dispute the payment with the card issuer. If the dispute is resolved in favor of the cardholder, the business suffers losses equivalent to the payment amount and the value of goods or services provided. Additionally, the business may face dispute fees.
Card Testing: Card testing is the practice of validating a card’s authenticity on one website before using it for fraudulent transactions on another site. Websites with an open payment form on the page can be subject to card testing.
To reduce the risk of fraud, businesses can take measures to block automated bots used by card testers.
CleanTalk Anti-Spam is a tool that can identify bots during order submission and block the form if it detects automated activity and this occurs before the payment for the order proceeds.. This helps safeguard against disputes and fraudulent purchases.
Installation on WordPress only takes a few minutes, providing protection against fraud and spam.
To install the Anti-Spam plugin, go to your WordPress admin panel → Plugins → Add New.
Then enter «СleanTalk» 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.
Go to the checkout page in Incognito mode. Place your order and use the test email address *@*******lk.org. When you submit your order, it will be blocked for a reason: *** Forbidden. Fraud prevention. Sender blacklisted. Anti-Spam by CleanTalk. ***.
So, the CleanTalk Anti-Spam installation process is complete.
