Introducing spam detection for webforms: An additional layer of protection to keep your Zoho CRM clean and secure

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:
  1. Simplifies the manual review of potential spam in webform submissions.
  2. Detects potential spam submissions by identifying invalid or suspicious email addresses and scoring them to indicate spam probability.
  3. Holds these possible spam records for manual approval from users.
  4. 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:
  1. 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.
  2. 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.
  3. 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:
  1. Green: 1% - 20%
  2. Orange: 21% - 70% 
  3. 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.

  1. The Block IP button is available, along with the other buttons like Merge, Approve, or Resolve.

  1. 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.
Notes
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.

NotesNote: 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

  1. In modules like Leads, the "Approve Leads" field under Actions has been renamed to "Awaiting Leads". This change extends to other modules as well.
  2. 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.

  3. The number of records in each category displayed prevents users from overlooking records that are awaiting approval.
  4. You can also filter these records using the new filters in the left panel on the Awaiting Leads page.
    1. Filter By Source: Filters records based on the source—webform or import.
    2. Filter By Spam Possibilities: Choosing the Webform option will enable this filter to list records based on the spam possibilities.
    3. Filter By Fields: Lists records based on these fields: Created Time and Record Owner.
    4. 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.

Info
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


      Zoho Campaigns Resources


        • Desk Community Learning Series


        • Digest


        • Functions


        • Meetups


        • Kbase


        • Resources


        • Glossary


        • Desk Marketplace


        • MVP Corner


        • Word of the Day


        • Ask the Experts


          Zoho CRM Plus Resources

            Zoho Books Resources


              Zoho Subscriptions Resources

                Zoho Projects Resources


                  Zoho Sprints Resources


                    Zoho Orchestly Resources


                      Zoho Creator Resources


                        Zoho WorkDrive Resources



                          Zoho CRM Resources

                          • CRM Community Learning Series

                            CRM Community Learning Series


                          • Tips

                            Tips

                          • Functions

                            Functions

                          • Meetups

                            Meetups

                          • Kbase

                            Kbase

                          • Resources

                            Resources

                          • Digest

                            Digest

                          • CRM Marketplace

                            CRM Marketplace

                          • MVP Corner

                            MVP Corner




                            Zoho Writer Writer

                            Get Started. Write Away!

                            Writer is a powerful online word processor, designed for collaborative work.

                              Zoho CRM コンテンツ



                                ご検討中の方

                                  • Recent Topics

                                  • Possible to send Zoom AI Companion transcripts and summaries to contacts in CRM?

                                    Title says it all. Is it possible to send Zoom AI Companion transcripts and summaries to contacts in Zoho CRM?
                                  • Clarity on extended contract status

                                    Clarity on “extended” status- How does Zoho “extend” a contract?  E.g. if client extends by 1 month, can the “end date” be adjusted accordingly in Zoho and tagged as “Extended” with a clear audit trail that also captures the client’s email? Note- Email
                                  • Customizing contract status

                                    Can we customize/add/remove status on Zoho contracts ourselves or does Zoho needs to do this? Context- There is a long list of status on Zoho but not all of them are relevant for us . There are few status which are missing and needs to be added. E.g-
                                  • Set Custom Business Calendars and Holidays for Global Teams

                                    Managing a project across diverse teams means accounting for more than just tasks and deadlines; it means acknowledging how and when each team actually works. Users might follow different working days or observe region-specific holidays that cannot be
                                  • [Integration edition] Deluge learning series - Integrations between Zoho apps and Third-party services with Deluge | 28 August 2025

                                    We’re excited to welcome you to the Deluge learning series: Integration edition! The Integration edition will run for three months: Session 1 – Integrating Zoho Apps with Deluge using inbuilt integration tasks Session 2 – Integrating Zoho Apps with Deluge
                                  • Critical Vulnerability in all major password manager plugins - is Zoho Vault affected?

                                    Hi Zoho, a security researcher found a critical clickjacking vulnerability in all major browser password managers: DOM-based Extension Clickjacking: Your Password Manager Data at Risk | Marek Tóth Is Zoho Vault affected as well? Apparently the Vault extension
                                  • Need Your Insights

                                    Hi Zoho, I'm confused why the flow only sends to one output. setVariable15 is from a list. It doesn't consider the 2nd entry. Any thoughts?
                                  • Map Dependency Fields - How can can I limit picklist values from a multi-select Parent field?

                                    I know the "Map Dependency Fields" feature doesn't allow a multi-select parent field. However, I need the functionality. Can I do it through a deluge function, and would it still support color coding picklists? We need the color coding for quick scanning
                                  • DYK 1 - Color Palette for Enhanced Visual Identification of Status

                                    Introducing the Did You Know series of posts. The goal of this series is to familiarize users with certain features or enhancements in Zoho Projects that may not be evident at first glance. The first post in this series deals with color palettes for indicating
                                  • Invalid field in the COQL query

                                    Dear Zoho Support! I believe that you already helped me with a similar problem a few years ago. One of my clients has a custom field named "LOB" in the "Deals" Module (see the field's metadata below). The COQL query using this field: : "select id, Deal_Name,
                                  • Transferring domain registration to new registrar and switching email hosting at the same time?

                                    I need to transfer an existing domain uv cure adhesive that's currently with SiteGround to Porkbun. I also need to move the existing custom email addresses from SiteGround to Zoho Mail. I'm not sure if I should transfer the domain first and then tackle
                                  • Split deposits

                                    Can Zoho do split deposits. One deposit, two checks for two separate invoices from different customers. This is one of the most common tasks I can imaging. When I mark the two invoices paid, there are two deposits in bank register. When I try to match,
                                  • Deactivate Desk Contact without Deleting Contat

                                    We have a client who has multiple tenants for regulatory purposes, and as such, has a few users that have email addresses in both tenants. They've then emailed into the ticketing system, so we have multiple contacts (no big deal, we want to keep their
                                  • [Free Webinar] Learning Table Series - Zoho Creator for Asset Management with AI Enhancements

                                    Hello Everyone! We’re excited to invite you to another edition of Learning Table Series, where we showcase how Zoho Creator empowers industries with innovative and automated solutions. Each month highlights a specific sector, and this time our focus is
                                  • Is there any way to get notified when a failure execution happens on a Workflow ?

                                    Hello, I wanted to know if it was possible to get notified (like with a mail for example) when a single failure happens on a specific flow of my organization ? I know that there's a mail which warns you when there's 20 failure in a row on the same flow,
                                  • Menu Building is completely broken

                                    I have been 3 hours, I have not been able to edit the menu. Either it is completely broken, very little intuitive or I do now know anything... There is no way to create a megamenu, no way to create a menu. Despite the fact I go to menu configurartion
                                  • Can you sell Subscriptions using Zoho Commerce?

                                    In addition to physical products and the apparently coming soon 'Digital Products', it is possible to sell Subscriptions using Zoho Commerce?
                                  • Kaizen #197: Frequently Asked Questions on GraphQL APIs

                                    🎊 Nearing 200th Kaizen Post – We want to hear from you! Do you have any questions, suggestions, or topics you would like us to cover in future posts? Your insights and suggestions help us shape future content and make this series better for everyone.
                                  • Multiple Languages for Product Names

                                    Hi, I use 2 languages: spanish and english. I want to have for every product a name in spanish and a name on english. I want to have to possibility of choosing one of these languages when making an invoice or a purchase order. Is there any way to do
                                  • Item with name in different languate

                                    Hello, is there a way to have an item with its name in different languages? For example: I sell an item in different markets and I'd like to have a Proposal and the Invoice with the Item Name in a specific language. Rino Bertolotto Zoho Specialist, STESA srl
                                  • Contacts with most tickets? Alarm for multiple tickets?

                                    Is it possible to see through the analytics/reports which contacts are creating the most tickets (not the most discussed ones)? Also, is there a way to set up a notification if a contact creates multiple tickets within a certain time frame?
                                  • Issue with Template Subject Line Format in Zoho CRM

                                    Hi Team, I’ve noticed that when I update the subject line of an email template in Zoho CRM, it sometimes appears in an incorrect format when used. Please see the attached screenshot for reference. Kindly look into this issue and fix this issue from backend
                                  • Two Data Labels in Bar Chart

                                    I need to create a bar chart that has both the SUM and COUNT. I've concatenated them into a formula but it converts it into a stacked bar / scattered chart. The bar chart is no longer accessible. Since i'm comparing YOY, it would be best to have it in
                                  • Disable field on subform row

                                    Hi, Is it currently possible to disable a row item on a subform? I was just trying to do something whereby until another value is entered the field is disable but for the deluge scripting interface threw up an error saying such a function is not supported on a subform. Thanks in advance for your help. Shaheed
                                  • Leads - Kanban view fit to screen

                                    Hey guys, I created a custom layout for my leads, staged by lead status. I have 10 types of status. In Kanban view I see only 4 columns/stages and need to scroll to the right to see the rest. Is there a way to make columns/stages be displayed all together?
                                  • Request to Differentiate Auto-Closed WhatsApp Conversations in SalesIQ

                                    Hi Zoho Support, I’d like to raise a request related to the way WhatsApp conversations are auto-closed in SalesIQ. Every Monday, our Sales team has to manually review each closed WhatsApp conversation from the weekend to identify which ones were automatically
                                  • Kanban View UI gets a revamp

                                    Hello everyone, In the coming week you will notice design related enhancements in Kanban View. The UI has been changed and a new option is introduced under Kanban View Settings that allows to change the color of the category headers.  Please, note that the functionality is not changed. These changes will not apply to the Activities and Visits modules. Here are the details of the changes: 1. The column widths have been fixed to 300 px. The records will have a box around them for clear distinction.
                                  • Issue with Anchor Link on Zoho Landing Page (Mobile/Tablet View)

                                    Hi Team, I have created a landing page using Zoho Landing Page and added an anchor link to it. The anchor link is working fine on desktop view; however, it does not work properly on mobile or tablet view. I’ve tried debugging this issue in multiple ways,
                                  • Simplest way to convert XML to a map?

                                    I've reviewed the help info and some great posts on the forum here by Stephen Rhyne (srhyne). At the moment I'm using XPath to generate a list of xml nodes, iterating through that to fetch the field name/value pairs and adding them to a map (one map for each record in the data). I then convert the row map to a string and add it to a list. Here's the function: list xml.getRecordListFromXML(string xml_data, string ele_name) {     result = List();     // get list of record nodes     rec_list = input.xml_data.toXML().executeXPath("//"
                                  • Introducing Creator Simplified: An exclusive learning series to enhance your app development skills

                                    Hey Creators! Welcome to Zoho Creator's new learning series, Creator Simplified. In this series, we'll dive into real-world business use cases and explore how to translate your requirements into solutions in your Creator application. You can also expect
                                  • [Product update] Updated Data Synchronization Process for QuickBooks - Zoho Analytics Integration.

                                    Dear QuickBooks integration users, We’re making an important update in the way data is currently synced in your QuickBooks integration within Analytics workspace. What’s changing: Previously, with every data synchronization, Zoho Analytics used to fetch
                                  • Zoho CRM new calander format cannot strikethrough completed task

                                    Hi, Recently there is a new format for calendar within Zoho CRM However, found out that a completed task will not cross out or strikethrough like previous format. Without strikethrough, it will be difficult to identify which task is still in Open status.
                                  • Employees not Users

                                    Hello, We are a construction company that has +180 employees and most of them are in remote location working onsite with no access to internet. Is it possible that we have data stored for all employees but have only 5-10 users who will be in charge of entering employees data? or do we have to pay for all +180 employees? even though they won't be using the system?
                                  • Zoho people generatimg pdf

                                    Hello , now i want to make a customm button in zoho people that is inside a deduction module , that fetches all the records and generate a pdf with a template that i have done in the mail merges template , i was told that i have to upload template on
                                  • zohorecruit.com career form postcode bug

                                    Dear, When I select a postcode from the drop down on a zohorecruit.com career form, the street text field is automatically filled with the name of the city, which should not happen. Any idea how I can fix this? Thanks, Bart
                                  • Office-365-agenda and Microsoft Teams Integration

                                    Dear, I have a trial version of Zoho Recruit and trying to evaluate the Microsoft Teams Integration in Zoho Recruit. After registering with my Office 365 account and checking the result of the registration/sign-in at https://mysignins.microsoft.com/ (which
                                  • How to add Connector in developer platform zoho?

                                    Hi, I am working on creating an Extension, and part of the development is to retrieve Email templates. In my CRM instance I can invokeURL by creating Zoho OAuth connection and get the template. But developer platform does not provide Zoho OAuth or any
                                  • How to archive Lost/Junk Leads so sales reps don’t see them, but keep them for reporting?

                                    Hi everyone, In our Zoho CRM we have two Lead Status values: Lost Lead and Junk Lead. What I want to achieve is: When a lead is marked as Lost or Junk, it should disappear from my sales reps’ Lead views (so they only see active leads). At the same time,
                                  • Zoho CRM Canvas Copy Original Layout

                                    Hello all, I want to use Canvas to make small changes to certain views, not to make huge changes. Is it possible to copy the original Zoho layout and set-up and start from there? I checked and all I can find are some templates which are far from the original
                                  • Revenue Management: #5 Revenue Recognition in SaaS

                                    If you're building or running a SaaS business, you've probably encountered this. You get paid upfront for a subscription and a one-time onboarding fee, but you end up with confusion about when to consider it revenue. Can I book all of it now? Should I
                                  • Next Page