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Anonymous
Jun 15, 2011 7:48 PM UTC
Needs Information

Blank Form Submissions by Spam Bots

We need a better way to handle Spam Bots filling out our forms.  They are bypassing javascript validation, and we are incurring conversion costs.  

    30 replies

    Anonymous
    Jun 15, 2011 8:24 PM UTC
    there is a similar discussion about server side validation,  Did Anyone Else Notice That There Is No Server Side Validation On Marketo Forms?
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    Anonymous
    Jun 16, 2011 12:01 AM UTC
    Our workaround(s)...

    On every landing page we have this code:

    <noscript> 
    <META HTTP-EQUIV="Refresh" CONTENT="0;URL=http://pages.eeye.com/Disabled.html">
    <style>
    * { display:none; color:#fff;background:#fff;}
    </style>
    </noscript> 

    That sends any non-JS user away and hides everything on the page. Super secure? Hardly. But better than nothing.

    Next we have a Smart List that filters for all kinds of spam pattterns. We then exclude members of that smart list from everything - and I mean everything. They don't get syncd, scored, assigned, added to a campaign, or even get a reply email. They get nothing and are deleted at some point.

    We added all of this 2 weeks ago and our spam entries went way, way down. So far down that I don't have to manaully scour the leads every morning. I still do, but out of habit and not need.
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    Anonymous
    Jun 17, 2011 3:25 PM UTC
    <threadjack>So kyle - Joe dirt came on the other day and I had this moment of realization where I knew that David Spade pic from. </threadjack>
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    Anonymous
    Jun 21, 2011 9:14 PM UTC
    We have a similar issue & I've been meaning to play with a honeypot hidden field in a form, instead of messing around with scripts and what not.  The problem is that you have to manually modify every form generated to hide an input and any campaign using that form would have to check the honeypot field.  It would be nice to have this as a built-in option on Marketo forms.

    For those who don't know: a honeypot field is one that is specifically not supposed to be filled out, or should have a certain value. For example, you might add a text field to a page & hide it from humans using CSS styles.  When the form is submitted, you check that field first...if it is not blank, then you can be pretty certain that it was a bot and you just throw out/ignore the info.
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    Anonymous
    Jun 28, 2011 11:32 PM UTC
    Kyle, to confirm, you are referring to your own pages, non-Marketo landing pages?

    We are having a number of issues with spammers on pages on our site where Marketo forms are embedded - non-Marketo landing pages. I've suggested invisible captcha: http://community.marketo.com/MarketoIdeaDetail?id=08750000000HQeBAAW

    I just spoke with support who lead me to this thread.

    Marketo Product Managers have said they need to see enough support for an idea before incorporating it into the code. THIS should show there is need. We strongly request Marketo implement spam detection for embedded forms. Invisibile captcha is an easy approach.


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    Anonymous
    Sep 29, 2011 8:01 PM UTC
    They definitely need to do someting about this. I've been working for a month on multiple solutions from hidden fields to java script, etc., etc. and nothing works. Now I'm back to square one, redeveloping my original form using Captcha and using a Marketo API to push the info to Marketo -- which is costing me mucho bucks in agency fees -- not to mention the time spent manually deleting the 30-40 spam leads/day plus the "cry wolf" syndrome that I've created in terms of sales rep perception.
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    Anonymous
    Dec 2, 2011 12:09 AM UTC
    Hi Kyle,
      Would you be willing to share your smart list filters for Spam Patterns? 
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    Anonymous
    Jun 7, 2012 3:21 PM UTC
    Does Marketo ever resolved this issue?
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    Anonymous
    Jun 11, 2012 12:22 PM UTC
    I'd like to see this too.
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    Anonymous
    Jun 11, 2012 12:32 PM UTC
    Fix this properly with server side validation please!
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