I am using my own php form processor using phpMailer. But have had some issues with spam sneaking through although I use Google Recaptcha in some case or the C5 addon Automatic Email Obfuscator. Be interested to know what people use to lessen spam such as smtp or a separate form processing company.
I built the package Anti-spammer Master in the marketplace and in my experience a honey pot can sometimes be extremely effective.
But your mileage may vary.
I know several websites that almost totally stopped SPAM with just the honeypot option from my package. Itâs the case for my own websites.
But I know others for which the honeypot didnât make a difference.
So Iâd say definitely implement a honeypot as itâs an easy way. Then maybe the time to submission, the number of messages per unit of time, and the use of URL shorteners could be a good start.
I also had good results with Akismet but itâs, in theory, a paid service.
You should do a quick analysis of the kind of SPAM youâre getting, though, to find the best approach.
If you want to have a look at my package, the screenshots will give you an idea of whatâs implemented.
One thing Iâve found quite effective is to geo-block certain countries. In my situation, Iâm really not interested in anything that comes out of China, Russia etc, and pretty much anywhere that isnât a âFive eyesâ country. Itâs relatively simple to do - either use Concreteâs built in GeoIP library, or if youâre using external code, it boils down to:
file_get_contents(âhttp://www.geoplugin.net/json.gp?ip=192.168.1.1â);
which returns a JSON payload including the ISO country code. If the country code is not one you want to hear from, drop it all on the floor. - better still, fake an âinvalid captchaâ response - drives 'em nutz!