How to reduce spam responses?
Facing challenges with invalid entries in your form responses? Discover how to get clean and accurate data to achieve reliable data collection.This article provides tips and solutions to help you ditch the spam and gather the valuable data you deserve.
What are spam responses?
Spam responses are unwanted entries by human scammers or spambots containing malicious, irrelevant or misleading information.
Why should I care about spam responses?
Consider a scenario:
Richard has placed an online form on his website to connect with potential leads and customers. He was excited about the overwhelming response he was receiving and the increased web traffic. Upon closer inspection, he found most of the entries to be invalid and fake. Frustrated by the time taken to differentiate between genuine and fake leads, he was looking for a way to put an end to this situation.
This problem isn't unique to contact forms. Similarly, a registration form can be spammed by submitting multiple responses to inflate participant counts. Spam can occur in any form, and form owners should proactively utilize the tools to prevent it before it disputes their data collection efforts. Zoho Forms offers the following spam control features to generate reliable form responses:
Double Opt-In
When the form is shared publicly or embedded in a website, there is a possibility to receive unsolicited responses. Spammers often use fake or invalid email addresses to submit their response. Double Opt-In authenticates by validating the email address of the respondents before form submission.
- An email will be sent to the email address entered in the form.
- The respondent must click the link in the email and select Confirm on the Opt-in Confirmation page to submit their form response successfully.
This additional step deters most of the bots and spammers if the email address used is fake, eliminating the potential spam response.
OTP Verification
OTP Verification authenticates the user to ensure that the received response is valid. It is one of the most simple and effective methods to reduce spam responses. The form will be accessible to the user only after verifying the OTP. You can choose to send OTP via SMS, email, or WhatsApp.
CAPTCHA
CAPTCHA is a security measure that distinguishes humans from automated bots. It reduces the spam response by placing a text-based CAPTCHA or "I'm not a robot" checkbox at the end of the form, which are easy for humans to perform but relatively difficult for bots.
Zoho Forms offers these three types of CAPTCHA:
Additional Features:
Restricting certain domains
Unwanted entries can also be controlled by restricting certain domains from responding to the form. Configure this by selecting Restrict Specific Domain under Domain Validation in the Email field properties.This ensures that certain domain addresses are limited from submitting the form response.
Restrict to one submission per respondent
Spam responses don't necessarily be generated by bots; some individuals also submit multiple responses, which results in misleading information. For privately shared forms in Zoho Form, you can enable Restrict to One Submission per Respondent under Form Availability in Settings to avoid multiple submission from the same respondent.
Which spam control feature should I use?
Here are a few suggestions:
Form Type | Purpose | Value | Spam Risk | Feature Suggestion |
Contact Form | Gathers basic information or feedback | Low | Moderate | CAPTCHA or Restrict to one submission(if privately shared) |
Newsletter Sign-up Form | Collects email address for ongoing content updates | Medium | High | Double Opt-In or CAPTCHA |
Registration Form | Collects details for participation | Medium - High | Moderate | Double OPT-In or CAPTCHA or OTP verification |
Tips:
- Always remember to choose features based on the value of information collected and the level of spam risk.
- Balance security with user experience by avoiding complex features for low value forms to prompt potential conversions.