Add Captcha to Opt-In

by AnthonyCeseri

Posted: 13 years ago 10 replies

WEB DESIGN

I've been getting a lot of spam opt-ins to my newsletter on my website. I want to put in a captcha, or something to stop it.

When those spam names come in, do they show up from the same IP address? I'd ideally like to have to captcha only show up if the names come in from repeat IP's, so most people won't even have to bother with it, if possible...

Also, how do I go about adding Captcha?

Thanks in advance!

#add #captcha #optin

AnthonyCeseri 13 years ago

I should also add, I use iContact to collect leads...
- Thanks
Signature
http://www.SuccessForYourSongs.com/ A resource for songwriters and performers
{{ DiscussionBoard.errors[7279732].message }}
MarketingMinded 13 years ago

Are you requiring double opt ins?
- Thanks
- 2 replies
Signature
The Solopreneur Chronicles
{{ DiscussionBoard.errors[7279750].message }}
- AnthonyCeseri 13 years ago
  
  Originally Posted by MarketingMinded
  
  Are you requiring double opt ins?
  
  No, and I'd like to keep it that way, if possible.
  
  Thanks
  
  Signature
  http://www.SuccessForYourSongs.com/ A resource for songwriters and performers
  
  {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[7279753].message }}
- AnthonyCeseri 13 years ago
  
  Originally Posted by MarketingMinded
  
  Are you requiring double opt ins?
  
  And actually, most of the fake emails that come in go right to my "bounced" folder because they're clearly fake and iContact knows it... So it's not like they're getting added to my list, in most cases... but it's still annoying to have them come in.
  
  Thanks
  
  Signature
  http://www.SuccessForYourSongs.com/ A resource for songwriters and performers
  
  {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[7279762].message }}
MarketingMinded 13 years ago

Double opt in solves all this...
- Thanks
Signature
The Solopreneur Chronicles
{{ DiscussionBoard.errors[7279780].message }}
robbhw 13 years ago

Hi,

I actually have no input but do have a dumb question: What is the benefit for them to spam and get on your opt-in list? What do they stand to gain from this? Just wondering

I think adding captcha at the opt-in page creates additional hurdle for regular, "true" subscribers; increasing the difficulty of sign up process is what you really don't want..

Also, spammer can use auto captcha slover service like Death by Capthca to easily defeat the restriction anyway.

If you want to "increase" the difficulty of user sign up to prevent spamming, I do think double opt-in is a better solution than captcha
- Thanks
{{ DiscussionBoard.errors[7279868].message }}
OldLodgeSkins 13 years ago

@robbhw : they're not getting on anybody's list, from their point of view... It's much simpler than that!

Let's be clear, we're talking about BOTS here not about actual persons. It goes like this: bot sees form. Bot fills form. Bot submits form.

Period. There's nothing more to it. I've been forced to use captchas in several other situations where it'd have been easier for the users not to have one, because of this... And even Google's ReCaptcha isn't 100% fail-roof, as you've noted yourself they can be worked around. But they do stop some of the spam.

Seb.
- Thanks
Signature

Do you use Facebook ? Then you can make money just by inviting people to a Facebook group ! It's called the Instant Income System. How cool is that?
{{ DiscussionBoard.errors[7280359].message }}
Istvan Horvath 13 years ago

There must be something in the air... and these bots (or persons?) went on a "mission".

I have a helpdesk submission form for support tickets with a captcha image AND a math question to solve. Do you think they slowed down? Nope, they didn't.

So I was wondering: are there bots that 'smart' to be able to both fill in the captch characters AND solve the math question?
- Thanks
Signature
{{ DiscussionBoard.errors[7280422].message }}
OldLodgeSkins 13 years ago

Did you get a recent increase in spam attacks?
Because curiously, just two days ago, on a website that usually gets 100 to 150 unique hits a day... It went up to 1500! In one single day. And hundreds if not thousands of spam comments that passed right through my captcha. Hopefully I have an active spam filter that caught most of them and let me ban the IPs, after banning hundreds of IPs the situation got under control pretty quickly (not mentioning that the posts the spam filter didn't catch never got published as I have to approve them manually anyway)... But still this surprised me. I've always had some spam and other types of attacks but not on that scale...
- Thanks
Signature

Do you use Facebook ? Then you can make money just by inviting people to a Facebook group ! It's called the Instant Income System. How cool is that?
{{ DiscussionBoard.errors[7280752].message }}
AnthonyCeseri 13 years ago

I know those kind of attacks are super annoying.

I ended up using double-opt in on my main webpage and it did solve the problem. Most of the real people who opt in there click the link in their email to confirm them. Plus most of my leads come from my single opt-in squeeze page right now, so it's all good...
- Thanks
Signature
http://www.SuccessForYourSongs.com/ A resource for songwriters and performers
{{ DiscussionBoard.errors[7697322].message }}