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Weird emails from contact form?

by jendoe
6 replies
I just put up a little site in the last month or so (lots of good info there, very little marketing right now - I'm working on it!), and have been promoting it with articles. I have a php contact-us type form up there, so that I don't have to show my email address.

I'm starting to get really bizarre emails from the contact us form. They make no sense at all - literally random characters:

for example: today the email was from "qqkulg@hvhfgn.com"

and when I open it, the entire contents are:

TFjeSx
achor text for link: crutwijkwhsj,
some other format of link here: eyxcnhmhzgga,
yet another link format here: dmvhximhbtfn
(insert another totally random domain here)

It would almost look like backlinks, if the domains weren't so completely *random*.

Is this some bot? Is this normal? And... is there any danger when I open these of picking up some nasty virus (I haven't tried following the links to see if they were valid, but I DID open the email - to be certain it wasn't someone actually trying to contact me...)

(Note: I'm trying to get the links to display the info, but not be active... hope this works... thanks.)

Thanks...
-Jen
#contact #emails #form #weird
  • Profile picture of the author Daniel Adams
    Maybe somebody is really bored and testing the contact form? Maybe you have a spam comment bot trying the contact from as a comment section?

    Try using a contact plugin that requires a captcha. That's the best I can think of at the moment.
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  • Profile picture of the author James Schramko
    or for a simple fix run the form to a gmail account to weed out the garbage.
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  • Profile picture of the author Lloyd Buchinski
    I've got nearly the same thing happening for a couple of months now. Get emails that are a lot of practically random letters with a few .coms thrown in. Just someone a little nuts, bananas, and crackers --bored, lonely and with absolutely nothing better to do.

    It was a bit of a worry at first but I can now hit the delete key fast enough that it takes a few of these emails to waste a second of my time.

    It is a bit surprising that some human beings are in such rough shape, but don't let it worry you. I wouldn't expect damage from this kind of thing.

    best wishes, lloyd
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  • Profile picture of the author jendoe
    Thanks guys. Yeah, it's *weird* since it's clear if you look at it that it's not for comments to be posted... I'll look into the captcha thing... and not worry so much

    Oh well... I'm learning all sorts of interesting things with this IM-stuff

    Thanks!
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  • Profile picture of the author TheNightOwl
    There was a thread on here a few months ago about this sort of thing. One person commented (from memory!) something to the effect that:

    -- the forms are being "probed" to see if they can be used as spam slaves
    -- it's only the amateurs who leave the kinds of trace that you're talking about

    It was all a bit scary, particularly because there was a comment like "Don't ask me how I know this because I'm not at liberty to say".

    Of course, it could've just been someone yanking our collective cranks. But I don't think so. I remember who the poster was and I don't think that's his style.

    I don't know what keywords it would be under, but if you're interested, do a search and see if you can dig it up.

    Or maybe you just don't wanna know!

    TheNightOwl
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