Introducing spam detection for webforms: An additional layer of protection to keep your Zoho CRM clean and secure
Greetings all,
One of the most highly anticipated feature launches—Spam Detection in webforms—has finally arrived!
Webforms are a vital tool for record generation, but they're also vulnerable to submissions from unauthenticated or malicious sources, which can lead to the collection of spam records that clutter CRM systems and reduce data quality.
Zoho CRM's new spam detection capability provides an additional security layer and minimizes dependencies on the basic options such as captchas and double opt-ins, ultimately improving data quality of webform submissions. Users no longer have to check potential spam records from webforms manually.
Let's dive into how Spam Detection restricts suspected spam records from webforms and helps users keep their CRM clean and organized.
What does spam detection do?
Spam detection offers the following advantages:
- Simplifies the manual review of potential spam in webform submissions.
- Detects potential spam submissions by identifying invalid or suspicious email addresses and scoring them to indicate spam probability.
- Holds these possible spam records for manual approval from users.
- Automatically blocks spam records to keep them out of the CRM account.
What happens to webform submissions?
All webform submissions are evaluated against predefined criteria and screened for spam detection. Let's say you've received several webform submissions for the Leads module from your website visitors.
Clean, non-suspicious records that originate from verified IP addresses—and are therefore deemed likely to be genuine and valid—are fed into the Leads module (unless approval has been set for all webform submissions).
In contrast, suspicious submissions are flagged as potentially spam and held back for manual approval in the usual record approval page called, Awaiting Leads (previously known as Approve Leads). These records are assigned a Spam Possibility Score based on the identified suspicious factors.
The new Record Source column provides details related to the submission's source—for example, the submission's IP address, the webform name, and the URL—when you hover over the info icon.
The new Spam Possibility column indicates the spam probability for each record as a percentage. You can also view the top reasons behind the scores of the spam record by hovering over the info icon beside it.
Each reason identified contributes to the score, and the sum is calculated to determine the final Spam Possibility Score for the record. Some of the reasons are listed below:
- Submission from bots/crawlers: If a bot or crawler fills and makes a submission via your hosted webform, the Spam Detection layer will automatically identify this malicious submission.
- Submission with invalid phone numbers: If a form respondent shares an incorrect phone number, a toll-free number, or a junk contact number, it will be flagged as an invalid phone number.
- Submission with invalid email addresses: If the submitted email address originates from a spam source, an unauthorized domain, or a temporary mailbox, it will be flagged as an invalid email address.
We're also introducing an advanced security layer: Honeypot Field, which is a cybersecurity mechanism that identifies bots by detecting submissions made to invisible form fields that genuine users don't interact with. If the submission comes with values filled in the hidden fields, the system flags the entry as likely being a spam submission.
Spam Detection has more parameters like these to detect spam submissions and assign appropriate scores. For quick probability recognition, the following colors represent the severity of spam possibilities:
- Green: 1% - 20%
- Orange: 21% - 70%
- Red: 71% - 100%
How spam detection helps handle records awaiting approval
Previously, records that awaited approval were evaluated manually and then approved, merged, resolved, or deleted accordingly. In addition to these traditional actions, and with the introduction of Spam Detection, administrators can now optionally block IP addresses of records with high spam possibility scores if they want to restrict further submissions from them.
- The Block IP button is available, along with the other buttons like Merge, Approve, or Resolve.
- Admins can also directly block an IP by using the Block IP button available when hovering over the info icon.
Record submissions from such blocked IPs will be categorized under the new Blocked record category.
Additionally, Zoho's system internally maintains a set of blacklisted IPs based on security assessments. Records submitted from those IPs will be automatically and permanently blocked by the CRM.
Note: Records under the Blocked category will be deleted in 60 days.
How to enable Spam Detection for your webforms
While setting up a webform, you'll see the Spam Detection section where you can adjust the Spam Possibility Score slider to set the threshold at which records should be flagged for manual review.
A score range of 90% to 100% will be set by default for all webforms as the tolerance level, which the webform owner can change anytime based on their preferences.
Note: Records whose spam possibility scores fall within the set range will be held for approval, along with the relevant percentages and reasons. If, say, the chosen range is 80 to 100%, only those records with spam possibility percentages between 80 and 100 will be listed. Submissions with lower percentages will not be held as spam.We've revamped the record approval page to provide a better UI experience and make it easier to manage and review spam records. Let's look at the changes in detail.
Revamped record approval page
- In modules like Leads, the "Approve Leads" field under Actions has been renamed to "Awaiting Leads". This change extends to other modules as well.
- The approval page has been redesigned to make it easier to switch between categories and review all records. This enhancement applies to all webform-supported modules and team modules.
- The number of records in each category displayed prevents users from overlooking records that are awaiting approval.
- You can also filter these records using the new filters in the left panel on the Awaiting Leads page.
- Filter By Source: Filters records based on the source—webform or import.
- Filter By Spam Possibilities: Choosing the Webform option will enable this filter to list records based on the spam possibilities.
- Filter By Fields: Lists records based on these fields: Created Time and Record Owner.
- Filter By IP - Webform: Filters blocked possible spam entries based on whether a given record is blocked manually by a user or automatically by the system. This filter is available only under the Blocked category.
That concludes everything about spam detection in webforms. Feel free to share your thoughts and suggestions in the comments.
Availability
Editions: All paid editions, including the developer edition (except for the paid trial edition)
DC: All DCs
Release Plan: This feature will be rolled out in phases. {Updated on Jan 30, 2026]
Regards,
Fiona
Access your files securely from anywhere
Centralize Knowledge. Transform Learning.
All-in-one knowledge management and training platform for your employees and customers.
New to Zoho Recruit?
Zoho Developer Community
New to Zoho LandingPage?
Zoho LandingPage Resources
New to Zoho Survey?
New to Zoho CRM Plus?
Deliver unforgettable customer experiences
New to Zoho CRM Plus?
Deliver unforgettable customer experiences
New to Zoho Marketing Plus?
Everything you need to run your marketing
New to Zoho Marketing Plus?
Everything you need to run your marketing
New to Bigin?
Topic Participants
Pauplin Fiona Peries G
Sticky Posts
Good news! Calendar in Zoho CRM gets a face lift
Dear Customers, We are delighted to unveil the revamped calendar UI in Zoho CRM. With a complete visual overhaul aligned with CRM for Everyone, the calendar now offers a more intuitive and flexible scheduling experience. What’s new? Distinguish activitiesVoC in Zoho CRM is now data savvy: Explore response drilldown, summary components and participation in CRM criteria
VoC has all the goods when it comes to customer intelligence—which is why we're constantly enhancing it. We recently added the following: A customer drilldown component that shows you the list of prospects and customers behind a chart's attribute ExpandedWrapping up 2025 on a high note: CRM Release Highlights of the year
Dear Customers, 2025 was an eventful year for us at Zoho CRM. We’ve had releases of all sizes and impact, and we are excited to look back, break it down, and rediscover them with you! Before we rewind—we’d like to take a minute and sincerely thank youPresenting ABM for Zoho CRM: Expand and retain your customers with precision
Picture this scenario: You're a growing SaaS company ready to launch a powerful business suite, and are looking to gain traction and momentum. But as a business with a tight budget, you know acquiring new customers is slow, expensive, and often deliversCreate and populate a record in an instant: Introducing zero-shot field prompting to Zia's ICR
A couple of months ago, we upgraded our in-house AI image detection and validation tool, Zia Vision, with intelligent character recognition (ICR). By training Zia with sample images, you could create and enrich CRM records with data extracted from standard
New to Zoho TeamInbox?
Zoho TeamInbox Resources
Zoho CRM Plus Resources
Zoho Books Resources
Zoho Subscriptions Resources
Zoho Projects Resources
Zoho Sprints Resources
Qntrl Resources
Zoho Creator Resources
Zoho CRM Resources
Design. Discuss. Deliver.
Zoho Show Resources
Get Started. Write Away!
Writer is a powerful online word processor, designed for collaborative work.
Zoho CRM コンテンツ
-
オンラインヘルプ
-
Webセミナー
-
機能活用動画
-
よくある質問
-
Ebook
-
-
Zoho Campaigns
- Zoho サービスのWebセミナー
その他のサービス コンテンツ
Nederlandse Hulpbronnen
ご検討中の方
Recent Topics
Tip #42 – How to manage data security with Privacy Settings – 'Insider Insights'
Data privacy is a cornerstone of trust in remote support. Through Privacy Settings in Zoho Assist, you can set up how data is gathered, stored, and handled in your organization. These settings ensure compliance, data protection for sensitive details,Ticketbai! en el Pais Vasco
Hola a todos, En enero de 2.022 se va a implantar en el país vasco un nuevo sistema de facturación, denominado ticketbai!, ¿hay alguna previsión de realizar las adaptaciones en zoho books o zoho invoices? Ignoro la cantidad de clientes que tienen estasZoho CRM mobile app feature update: home page widgets, field tooltips and user image upload
Hello everyone! Your business doesn't pause when you're on the move, and neither should your CRM. That's why in our latest update, we've introduced a few new features to make your mobile CRM experience smoother and more efficient. Let's take a quick lookZoho CRM Plain Text Template: Line Breaks and Formatting Issue
Hello, I'm following the instructions to create email templates in Zoho CRM, but I'm having a problem with the plain text version. https://help.zoho.com/portal/en/kb/zoho-sign/integrations/zoho-apps/zoho-crm/articles/zoho-crm-email-templates#Steps_to_create_a_custom_email_templateOptimizing Task Handling: Auto-Remove Recurrence for cancelled Tasks.
Hello Everyone, A Custom function is a user-written set of code to achieve a specific requirement. Set the required conditions needed as when to trigger using the Workflow rules (be it Tasks / Project) and associate the custom function to it. Requirement:Important updates to your connectors
Hello everyone, Greeting from Zoho Creator! We're excited to announce that we'll be rolling out significant backend updates to Zoho Creator's built-in connectors to enhance security by following the latest frameworks. The existing version of some of theCreate, collaborate, and manage agreements with Zoho Sign
Agreements drive business. We launched Zoho Sign in 2017 as a simple digital signature tool to sign agreements from anywhere, at any time. Over the years, we've learned that most agreements go through last-minute changes before they're signed. Our usersFunction #25: Automatically generate purchase orders from a sales order
We kicked off the "Function Fridays" series with the goal of helping you automate your everyday accounting tasks. As we delve into today's post, I'm delighted to announce that we're here to present the 25th custom function in this series. While it ishiding a topic from all but one segment (or list)
My organization sends out a number of newsletters using Zoho Campaigns. One of those newsletters is for volunteers. In order to become a volunteer, a person has to first go through our volunteer orientation (training). After that, they can receive newslettersHow do I set up this automation correctly?
When contacts enter my Subscribers list, I want it to reference a custom field to see if it is empty. Then I want it to do two things: If empty: Assign a tag based on a different custom field. If that custom field is empty, assign a different tag. IfFunction #62: Display associated Quote on Invoice details screen
Hello everyone! Today, we are sharing a Related List script that makes it easy to view and access the quote from which an invoice was created right from the invoice details screen. This Related List displays the Quote number and Amount, allowing you toDesk x CRM Integration
Howdy! We currently use SalesIQ but we are considering moving across to Desk as it seems to have more functionality that we want. One of the pulls is the ability for our customers to self serve. But, I might be getting over excited and not actually needIssue with Save & Share Link – Works for Others but Not Creator
I’ve enabled the "Save and Share" feature in Zoho Forms, and it works correctly for all users accessing the public link—except for me (the form creator). Issue Details: When I save and share the link, recipients see a “no permission” error. The form isSave the pdf report from a registration form in a Folder
Through Zoho Forms I created a registration form with quite a lot of rules to handle different variables (TEAM types, payment in installments, etc.), and the result is pretty good. The automatic PDF that is sent to the respondent upon submission is alreadyzoho forms integration to zoho work drive
Scenario: A user fills out a Zoho Form, entering details such as email, mobile number, and other required information, and uploads supporting documents like PAN, Aadhaar, etc. Upon submission, the data is available in Zoho Forms Reports. Requirement:Zoho Forms to Zoho CRM Integration failed - can I restart it?
The integration of Zoho Form to Zoho CRM has failed. Is there a way for me to restart it for the impacted entry?insert an equation, but in document, it shows an image not available.
I'm new to Zoho writer and used Zoho writer in desktop app version . When I inserted an equation, I got an image not available sign. Any help is appreciated. Thanks, CharlesZoho Desk Android app update - Swipe action customization
Hello everyone! We have brought in support for the swipe action customization in latest version(v2.9.13) of the Zoho Desk Android app update, enabling you to configure left and right swipe gestures on tickets to carry out the actions swiftly without openingArranging Ticket Templates
Is there any way to arrange our ticket templates? It doesn't look very organised when it's just arranged according to when they were created. We want the list to look more organised, by arranging/grouping them by topics, or even just by alphabeticalWhat they mean with "Portal"?
I just downloaded this app to take my personal notes on digital art studio because it seemed to me the most comfortable app to do it, I use it very often, what do they mean by “no activity on your portal”? I have about 1 year of work here and I don'tfavorites no longer listed
Hello, I can no longer navigate to my Favorites from the pulldown at the top of my grid view (see attached screenshot). I wasn't able to find it anywhere! Please help me display my Favorites. Thank you!Notecards Disappeared
Got a new phone. Downloaded and signed in Zoho Notebook. Not finding the Note cards. Just Empty Note books. Frustrating.Table Errors
Hello, I'm new to Zoho Notebook and using it on several Mac/Apple devices. My question is regarding tables: Why do they become broken, and how to fix the error without retyping all my data? (Please see the screenshot attached.)Online Calculator with Zoho Forms?
I'd like to build a custom calculator on my website. Zoho Forms seems to offer all the fields for basic calculations performed live without pressing any "Calculate" buttons. Unfortunately, there is still that "Submit" button at the bottom. There is nothingZoho Tables instead of Zoho Creator Spreadsheet reports <3
That would make my day for sure. Zoho Creator is create, but miss data entering as AirTable/Spreadsheet can. Seeing Zoho putting effort in this makes me think maybe one day we could see a similar interface for Zoho Creator spreadsheet reports. B.Notebook Stack
Hi Everyone I Hope you´re fine, I´m sorry if this idea was posted before (I made a search but I haven´t find anything related). So, Having the possibility of stacking notebooks would be an interesting way to order notebooks that correspond to the sameWriting on sketch cards is bugged when zoomed in
When zoomed in, it writes a noticeable distance above or to the side of where you're actually trying to write. The further you're zoomed in, the more noticeable it is. Zooming is also entirely absent on the desktop version.Swipe between notes on iPhone
It'd be convenient if I could move from one note to the next in a notebook simply by swiping left to right.Sales IQ chat is not working in signed android apk
I have integrated ZOHO sales IQ support chat and i have followed each step and its working fine in my development build but when i create signed APK for it. Chat does not work in it and showing awaiting for detail. I previously asked the same query butCOQL order by COUNT not working
Dear community, I am trying to get a list of deal amounts per planner working on it and sorted to get see who has the least amount of deals. For some reason, I am unable to use sort by in combination with a COUNT. My original code was: query = "selectI want to duplicate a report and name it something else
Hi, I have created a report, and now want to reproduce it and call it something else. so that I will end up with TWO separate reports with different titles. Please tell me how do I copy / reproduce a report pleaseZoho CRM: Sales Rep Professional Certification Program on Coursera
We are happy to share that we have published the Zoho Sales Representative Professional Certificate in partnership with Coursera, a leading platform for online learning and career development that offers access to courses and degrees from leading universitiesOS X Notebook quits immediately upon launch
NoteBook for OS X (Sequoia, but also under Sonoma) always quits immediately upon launch (so I cannot use the "Attach user log" option). I've restarted my MacBook but the problem persists. If it helps, attached is a diagnostic report from Library>LogCan External users upload files or images to WorkDrive?
I want to know if it is possible for someone externally through a link and PW be able to upload files and images onto WorkDrive?Multi-line fields character limits
Is there a way to set the character limit higher on multi-line fields so that we are not losing information pasted into the field? When the text is entered or pasted, there is no error to say that the text is too large. After saving and going back to view most of the text is gone. Also, when viewing the resume, the text is not wrapped in the multi line fields and can t be read without scrolling across the page.Taz bot not working — What should I do to resolve this issue?
I am experiencing issues with the Taz bot in Zoho Cliq—not receiving responses or it does not seem to work as expected. Could you please explain why the Taz bot might not be functioning and what steps I should take to resolve this issue? Thank you!OneNote Migration
I am trying to migrate two notebooks from OneNote. For five days now I have had no notification that migration has completed and the migration page show 50% complete - one notebook completed one not finished. It just stays like this. I am unable to cancelSet various time slot reminders for task and event
Hi I would like known if there is possibility to set various time reminders for a task or event like we have the possibility to do in google calendar or google task. For example I'am creating an event or task and I want to be alerted before 30min andZoho Calendar not functioning---cannot edit, add attendees, etc.
Hello, My calendar is acting strange. I'm using Chrome as my browser and pop ups are not blocked (the calendar worked fine yesterday). When creating an event, I'm not able to "edit" the event and add attendees, etc. The link is non-responsive. I cannotSpilt Axis for stacked column and line graph
Each month around this time I prepare a business review deck. One of the biggest annoyances I have with Zoho, also happens to be something that most other platforms have provided for a long time now, and that is being able to create a chart with stackedNext Page