Yikes! New Anti-Spam Technique Not Working!
Posted February 10, 2007 at 9:44 AM by Ben Nadel
Sorry if any of you got spam comments emailed to you this weekend. Since I put my new anti-spam technique in place, about 15 or so spam comments have gotten through. A majority of them were from the same bot I think, so if I can stop this guy, then I think I would be good.
I have updated the ColdFusion code to tweak the reasons that form submissions will get blocked. I think this final step should be pretty good as it really attacks the reasons why spam bots are so effective - they are so darn fast! If this finally works, then I will write it up on Monday as it is soooo simple.
Fingers crossed again.
Reader Comments
Have you seen how they do it on PHPBB? (http://www.phpbb.com)
In the post submission, they have this layer over the textarea and you have to click on it to prove that you are human. It's very slick looking, but I'm not sure how it works.
That's cool, but I am dying to get something to work that doesn't require extra human action... maybe this is a pipe dream. I thought I was on to something, but it is proving unsuccessful. I will not be beaten just yet!
How is your anti-spam code working out?
I have done something similar. Not only did I change the value of a form element, but I even renamed form elements. (By changing the name property of the element) The code is very obfuscated, so you'd need a real javascript interpreter to bypass my system. (Not just a fake one that looks for certain patterns)
My method has proven very successful. I have only gotten one spam eversince. (Which I suspect was posted by a hired Nigerian :p )
You can check it out at: http://gameboygenius.8bitcollective.com/wordpress/?p=53 (Check the source)
How I found you? I found this search in my referrer log: http://www.google.co.in/search?hl=en&q=new+antispam+techniques&meta= and you were on the first page too. (In the top even!)
@nitro2k01,
Cool technique. My technique is working OK. I get a few posts every now and then, but certainly not all that many. I like the fact that you rename the Name attribute - I wasn't even aware that the browser would allow you to do that.
