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I have a paypal form on my website which includes my email:
<input type="hidden" name="cmd" value="_cart">
<input type="hidden" name="upload" value="1">
<input type="hidden" name="business" value="[email protected]">
I wonder if spambots can scan this hidden field for my email to send me spam, if so, how can i prevent that?
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A bot will normally fill in that field (they usually fill in all fields to avoid possible required-field validation errors) but a user would not, since it's hidden. So on POST you check for a value in that field and SILENTLY fail to send the message if there is a value in it.
Form-filling bots are often programmed to use a large database of stolen consumer data. This data is what the bot uses to populate each form field so that the “leads” they generate look like real people. After all, if you check the information, you'll see that it matches the data of a real consumer you can reach!
What Is Form Spam? Form spam is the filling out and submission of web forms with irrelevant or fake information, including abusive language, ads, spam links to malware-laden sides and phishing websites set up by scammers. Most form spam is created by bots which are programmed to find web forms and fill them out.
Although you can't really stop the spambots, there are some things you can do to help:
A lot of spambots tend to look for the @ symbol in your code, so you could use an alternative like:
youremail-at-example.com
youremail(at)example.com
youremail AT example DOT com
You can also use ASCII Character Codes which are codes for certain symbols. For the @ sign, the code is @
Although it will disguise your @ sign, many spambots can detect ASCII codes.
There are some other options like adding some javascript, using an image, using a robot TXT File, but you can click the link below for more details and ideas.
You can look at a lot more details and ideas to protect your email from spambots here
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