Blank Form Submissions by Spam Bots

subscribing

Subscribing also. Had a bot attack of about 400 bad form submissions today that kicked off a bunch of Sales alerts. That was fun. Definately going to try the javacode and the smart list stuff.

A very simple, quick and effective method being widely adopted is reCAPTCHA

http://www.google.com/recaptcha

Anyone who thinks adding a reCAPTCHA to a landing page is a good idea clearly isn't really on the same page as me regarding lowering the barrier to form completion!

Server side validation please...

The challenge with servier side validation is that there is  higher server load and slower feedback for users. In Marketo you'll find powerful sifting tools to weed out the garbage ones

That said, having the option is key if that's not a concern for you. We'll look forward to more development in this areas from our PM.

A rather simple work-around is to:

1. built a form with a hidden field and set it to a default value, for example form_valid = 0
2. use javascript to change/update the value if the prospect enters any data using the "onblur" event. i.e. form_valid=1
3. In a Marketo smart campaign based upon fills out form, in the flow check to see if the data value of the field form_valid <> 1, if so delete the lead.

I have used this technique quite well for spambot prevention

Hope this helps
Eric

LOVE IT!

@Don - I'm not suggesting not using client side validation, I'm sugesting that server side validation is add aswell - so there is no impact on the real user - but validation is enforced in a way that it can't be bipassed by bots.

@Eric - that is a good idea.  When you say "quite well" - are some bots still getting through?

quite well as in the problems goes away.

Eric to the rescue. This seems like something Marketo should be providing out-of-the-box.