Captcha defeated by spammers

We have forms with captcha being defeated by spammers. I get the emails but there is no captcha filled out even though it's required on the form, etc.

I am using an advanced form with captcha required in the designer and there is an even loop in check captcha on fail, but we get spam emails where the captcha was not filled out.

Any ideas?

FYI - blocking IPs is pretty hopeless - they are using dozens of different IPs.

Also, just checked the dbase - no captcha recorded there even though it is required in the form to complete.

FYI - the website is UUFT.org. I'm glad to get you an admin login if you need it.

Hi Umbrella,

By all means PM me the site URL, the form name, and a SuperAdmin login and I'll take a quick look.

Bob

Just pm'd you the login.

FYI - this is happening on multiple sites, so a solution is greatly appreciated!

Any news? We are continuing to get forms filled out by spammers with no captcha filled out.

Thanks.

Any news?

I sent you a login to check this out, is there any news on a fix?

Hi Umbrella,

Sorry for the delay - I couldn't see what was happening.

I've looked at this a couple of times and can't see how it is that the forms are being submitted. I've tested with and without JavaScript enabled and the Captcha seems to work correctly and block the submissions. I have looked at the form data and can see the spam. It certainly might be worth adding a check for a blank captcha field in the On Submit event to see if that helps.

I'm also wondering if having two Captchas set causes a problem - but again I can't see how. The saved submissions have got through both of them.

Bob

Hi Umbrella,

I've added an Event Switcher on the contact form that checks that the captcha string is set and is 5 characters long. It redirects to the site home page if the check fails.

That looks as if it should block all but a few spam messages - they all contain URLs so a next step could be to check for a block those.

Best wishes

Bob

So, bottom line: we don't know how they're defeating the captcha requirement?

HI Umbrella,

No, but as this is not a common problem I'm assuming that it is somehow connected to the way that your form/site is configured. When I test all seems to be OK.

Bob