WARNING!! Don't Do This...

dsmpublishing

15 years ago

Thanks that is great information

sam
X

Thanks

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MarieReyes

15 years ago

Will keep that in mind Tony, thanks!

Thanks

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ems82

Banned 15 years ago

Thanks Tony,

Thanks for posting such an important thing. If i hadn't read your post, then i would have made the mistake.

But, how anyone will use the "Captcha" for this kind of job. Please let us know.

Thanks
1 reply

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JimmyD 15 years ago

Similar thing happened to me a few years back. Mind you I had written a little PHP "tell a friend" script without any security or anti spam! You live and learn.
- Thanks
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Success2020

15 years ago

Thanks for the great info... unfortunate i dont understand what you mean by 'Captcha'... can you please explain to me or someone else... Thanks

Thanks

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JimmyD

15 years ago

When you see an image with a word or numbers that you have to type in to send a message, sign up to soemthing, that is Captcha. Most decent tell a friend scripts will come with the Captcha option.

[ 1 ] Thanks

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howudoin

15 years ago

Nice info on "tell a friend" kind of scripts. I've been on the receiving end of this since I'm getting spam from multiple sources through some unknown "friends"

Bhupinder

Thanks

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LindseyInteractive

15 years ago

Originally Posted by Tony Dean

Since the start of Web 2.0 it's been the strategy to get people to refer a site to others, by way of 'email a friend' type of scripts on the site.

Don't fall into the trap of setting up such scripts on your site or blog without a 'Captcha' or you will find your site just went down because the spammers web bot has just sent a million emails through your server and the web host just received a million 'spam' complaints.

I receive daily spam from automated scripts on various sites out there with added spam, it allows the spammers to not be traced so easily.

That is a great piece of information. Nice to know this. I will also remember this when it comes to working with clients who want to put that "Share This" on their websites.

Thanks

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Tyrus Antas

15 years ago

You can use the free reCAPTCHA service. It's not unbreakable but it works very well: reCAPTCHA: Stop Spam, Read Books

Tyrus

[ 2 ] Thanks

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Tom Brite

15 years ago

Great information here Tony,

Especially if your on shared hosting and getting these sort of complaints then they will just shut you down straight away.

However even having captcha isn't perfect but does stop alot of spam problems.

Same goes for overloading with captcha requirements. If your users are having to enter captcha after captcha then trust me they will just leave and look somewhere else, even gmail captcha is annoying as its damn hard to read and makes creating a simple gmail email account harder than it needs to be.

Tom Brite

Thanks
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bminor

15 years ago

Originally Posted by Tom Brite

Same goes for overloading with captcha requirements. If your users are having to enter captcha after captcha then trust me they will just leave and look somewhere else, even gmail captcha is annoying as its damn hard to read and makes creating a simple gmail email account harder than it needs to be.

Tom Brite

I couldn't agree more. I sometimes ask myself why Captcha images are made in a way to force you to guess what a certain sign is meant to be. Are there bots which can decipher these images and the easier it is for a human to read the easier it is for a bot, too?

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Tom Brite

15 years ago

Originally Posted by bminor

I couldn't agree more. I sometimes ask myself why Captcha images are made in a way to force you to guess what a certain sign is meant to be. Are there bots which can decipher these images and the easier it is for a human to read the easier it is for a bot, too?

Nope the captcha can be really easy for a human and yet hard for a robot.

robots will i imagine always be able to crack captcha but its just how easily and how fast we can update them so that robots no longer can.

Tom Brite

Thanks
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JohnMcCabe

15 years ago

Good tip...

I took a slightly different tack, and it eliminated the spam problem altogether.

I use a script that, when a link is clicked, opens the visitor's email program with the subject line and message pre-filled. All they have to do is add the contact and click to send.

No spam problem for me, no security worries for them.

Thanks
1 reply

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anth.elias

15 years ago

Originally Posted by JohnMcCabe

Good tip...

I took a slightly different tack, and it eliminated the spam problem altogether.

I use a script that, when a link is clicked, opens the visitor's email program with the subject line and message pre-filled. All they have to do is add the contact and click to send.

No spam problem for me, no security worries for them.

The only issue with that is not everyone has there email program outlook or outlook express or what ever set up on there computer, there are a lot of people that just use webmail.

The one I use opens in a little java window it's not a html page, and you have to click on it to open the window, then you have to click send to send the email, so far it has not been an issue.

Thanks

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Dan C. Rinnert 15 years ago

An alternative is to use a JavaScript/URL which prepopulates an eMail in their own eMail application, such as Outlook.

That way, it is of no use for spammers, and your domain doesn't get associated with sending spam should a recipient complain about their "friend" sending a message and it doesn't use any resources on your server.

Oh, I see John McCabe just beat me to the punch on that idea...

Another possibility is to not allow a custom subject or message. That way, spammers cannot add their own links so it is of no value to them. Just make sure your form processing page is locked down so they cannot submit directly to it.
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judeman

15 years ago

Thanks for the info. And the captcha link.

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Success2020

15 years ago

I got the full meaning of "CAPTCHA" thanks......

Thanks

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inman

15 years ago

Wow! Never thought of "refer-a-friend" scripts this way. Captcha is the way to go.

Thanks

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Jon Alexander

15 years ago

or instead of mailing from your sever, let the script open up their desktop client to send the message, with the subject and text prepopulated...

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Devon Brown

15 years ago

Learning from other people's mistakes. Thanks so much! Will keep this in mind.

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GuerrillaIM

15 years ago

captcha can be broken fairly simply these days. I find in addition to captcha putting a limit on number of sends per ip address is required. If you code this right it will also protect your script from DoS attacks.

Thanks

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Jdub840

15 years ago

I never really thought that way about Captcha. All I know it had something to do with the machine and without firmware no one could send mail. Thanks for the description.