Image verified feedback/contact form - does it exist?

Hi everybody,

Some loser has been sending spam to my feedback form (http://www.middleeastfacts.com/feedback.html), four times daily with the same messages - a tonne of links to online gambling and online pharmacy sites. Is it likely that whoever is doing this is simply using a script and not manually entering the messages? If that is the case, does anybody know an image verification code, like Carbonize has made for the guestbook, for regular HTML forms? My coding skills aren't good enough to adapt Carbonize's code to the form, so that's not an option for me

.

Thanks to anyone who can help!
Steve

Are you using a well known script? Spammers only target well used scripts. What script is it and link me if you please.

Carbonize wrote:Are you using a well known script? Spammers only target well used scripts. What script is it and link me if you please.

Sorry Carbonize, I don't know what you mean by "link me". If you mean for me to send the link, it is in the first post. As for the script, it is one that is built in to FrontPage, so I don't know if that counts as a "well known script". It does use FrontPage built in functions, apparently.

Below is the code I'm using - is it helpful? I realize now that my email address is in it, which is probably not good, as it can likely be picked up by spam-oriented fools

:

<form action="--WEBBOT-SELF--" method="POST" name="Feedback">
  <input TYPE="hidden" NAME="VTI-GROUP" VALUE="0">
  <p align="center"><strong><font face="Verdana">What kind of comment would you like to send?</font></strong></p>
  <dl>
    <dd>
      <p align="center"><font face="Verdana" size="2">&nbsp;
      <input type="radio" name="MessageType" value="Praise" checked>Praise <input type="radio" name="MessageType" value="Complaint">Complaint <input type="radio" name="MessageType" value="Problem">Problem
      <input type="radio" checked name="MessageType" value="Suggestion">Suggestion</font></dd>
  </dl>
  <p align="center"><strong><font face="Verdana" size="2">Enter your comments in the space provided below:</font></strong></p>
  <dl>
    <dd>
      <p align="center"><font face="Verdana"><textarea name="Comments" rows="11" cols="51"></textarea></font></dd>
  </dl>
  <p align="center"><strong><font face="Verdana" size="2">Tell us how to get in touch with you:  </font> </strong></p>
  <dl>
    <dd>
      <div align="center">
        <center>
      <table width="371">
        <tr>
          <td width="217" align="center">
            <p align="center"><font face="Verdana" size="2">Name</font>
          <td width="255" align="center">
            <p align="center"><font face="Verdana" size="2"><input type="text" size="35" maxlength="256" name="Username">
            </font>
        </tr>
        <tr>
          <td width="217" align="center">
            <p align="center"><font face="Verdana" size="2">E-mail</font>
          <td width="255" align="center">
            <p align="center"><font face="Verdana" size="2"><input type="text" size="35" maxlength="256" name="UserEmail">
            </font>
        </tr>
        <tr>
          <td width="217" align="center">
            <p align="center"><font face="Verdana" size="2">Tel</font>
          <td width="255" align="center">
            <p align="center"><font face="Verdana" size="2"><input type="text" size="35" maxlength="256" name="UserTel">
            </font>
        </tr>
        <tr>
          <td width="217" align="center">
            <p align="center"><font face="Verdana" size="2">FAX</font>
          <td width="255" align="center">
            <p align="center"><font face="Verdana" size="2"><input type="text" size="35" maxlength="256" name="UserFAX">
            </font>
        </tr>
      </table>
        </center>
      </div>
      </centre>
    </dd>
  </dl>
  <dl>
    <dd>
      <p align="center">
      <font face="Verdana" size="2">
      <input type="checkbox" name="ContactRequested" value="ContactRequested">
      Please contact me as soon as possible regarding this matter.</font></dd>
  </dl>
  <p align="center">
  <font face="Verdana">
  <input type="submit" value="Submit Comments"> <input type="reset" value="Clear Form"></font></p>
</form>
<hr>
<h5>
<font face="Verdana">
Copyright © 2001 Middle East Facts. All rights reserved.<br>
Revised:

Thanks for any help you can give me. You're incredibly helpful!

Steve

I need to look into the actual script to see what inputs it demands. With the advanced guestbook it will reject posts that do not have a name or message and so you simply edit the name of the name input.

Shoot man, you got me stumped. I don't know where to look for the script because it's part of the FrontPage extensions. I guess I'll just have to deal with the problem.

Carbonize wrote:I need to look into the actual script to see what inputs it demands. With the advanced guestbook it will reject posts that do not have a name or message and so you simply edit the name of the name input.

I'll make some test posts using my name, feel free to delete them.

wow no checking what so ever. I can even post with no comment at all. I could fix it by changing the names of the inputs but it appears to get passed to a program that is on your webserver. I'd suggest looking on www.hotscripts.com for a different script.

How do you get the data from this "script"? I'm sure it would only take a few minutes to throw together a simple script to do it better.

Carbonize wrote:How do you get the data from this "script"? I'm sure it would only take a few minutes to throw together a simple script to do it better.

There are other scripts that I can use on hotscripts and I have checked some of them, but I haven't been able to locate one with an image verification, like you have for the guestbook. I'm sure there is software out there that can detect a form, fill in the fields and click submit, automatically... If it is an individual, then I guess I'll just have to suck it up.

As for the script, the data comes through automatically by email and gets stored in a file in a private directory on the server. When I originally started the site, I didn't know anything about HTML/PHP or hotscripts, so I just used the tool that was built in to FrontPage.

By the way, I can validate the data that comes into the form, but that won't really help me for this problem. Empty posts haven't been a problem for me at all.

P.S. Was it you that wrote "All hail this mighty website"?

middleeastfacts wrote:

Carbonize wrote:P.S. Was it you that wrote "All hail this mighty website"?

Yes that was I. Image verification would only be needed for popular scripts. Spammers do not check the form they just send the data straight to you so changing the inputs of a popular script should stop them.

Carbonize wrote:

middleeastfacts wrote:

Carbonize wrote:P.S. Was it you that wrote "All hail this mighty website"?

Yes that was I. Image verification would only be needed for popular scripts. Spammers do not check the form they just send the data straight to you so changing the inputs of a popular script should stop them.

I understand what you're saying, but aren't most feedback forms pretty standard? I mean, can't some engine look around the net for feedback forms with fields for name, email, phone number, message and a submit button, and if they're found, fill out the information. Most of the feedback scripts that I have seen pretty much have these features, so it's not quite like a guestbook, in which the process for spamming would have to be customized.

I'll let you know if I find a good solution. I haven't got one of those spams in a couple days, so maybe the guy's given up...yeah right!

The inputs aer the same but the input names wil change. The input name is the part of the tag marked name="INPUTNAME". To automatically submit a post you send the data which is formatted as INPUTNAME=blah. Tell me exactly what you want from the feedback form and I'll see if I can't throw something together.

Carbonize wrote:The inputs aer the same but the input names wil change. The input name is the part of the tag marked name="INPUTNAME". To automatically submit a post you send the data which is formatted as INPUTNAME=blah. Tell me exactly what you want from the feedback form and I'll see if I can't throw something together.

Thanks for your offer. I will see if the guy continues to spam me - if it was only a one-week blitz the guy was doing, then I don't have to worry about it anymore. I was receiving the emails daily for three or four days straight (8 of them each time), but I haven't received them for a couple of days, so I think they may have stopped.

I'll be in touch with you soon - and please know that I really appreciate your offer.

Just so you know, the only thing that I was originally looking for was a way to plug your image verification script into a standard feedback form, so that a person leaving feedback would have to put in all the fields and the verification number. If the spammer, as you suggest, is filling out the form by hand, then the verification form will of course be useless.

Thanks!
Steve

Just for the hell of it I'll probably make a feedback script. From what you said it just sends an email containing the information posted and puts it in a flat file for you to view. Love to know how the flat file is formatted.

Carbonize wrote:Just for the hell of it I'll probably make a feedback script. From what you said it just sends an email containing the information posted and puts it in a flat file for you to view. Love to know how the flat file is formatted.

If it helps, I can send my file to you, so you can see all the nasty feedback I get. Let me know if you'd like me to send it to you by email.