Title: Captcha
Last modified: February 14, 2024

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# Captcha

 *  Resolved [pixelsandinkstudio](https://wordpress.org/support/users/pixelsandinkstudio/)
 * (@pixelsandinkstudio)
 * [2 years, 3 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/captcha-176/)
 * Hi. I’m using Forminator on a client’s website with Captcha v2, honeypot and 
   Akismet enabled. The form’s submissions are full of spam. I know the captcha 
   works, because when I look at google analytics to see who reached the Thank You
   page, it aligns with the legitimate submissions. But forminator seems to be recording
   submissions that fail captcha. Is there a way to turn that off?
 * The page I need help with: _[[log in](https://login.wordpress.org/?redirect_to=https%3A%2F%2Fwordpress.org%2Fsupport%2Ftopic%2Fcaptcha-176%2F%3Foutput_format%3Dmd&locale=en_US)
   to see the link]_

Viewing 4 replies - 1 through 4 (of 4 total)

 *  Plugin Support [Laura – WPMU DEV Support](https://wordpress.org/support/users/wpmudev-support8/)
 * (@wpmudev-support8)
 * [2 years, 3 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/captcha-176/#post-17427084)
 * Hi [@pixelsandinkstudio](https://wordpress.org/support/users/pixelsandinkstudio/)
 * I hope you’re well today!
 * Captcha, Honeypot and Akismet enabled all together is a pretty powerful combo
   and while there’s never a 100% protection, it definitely should eliminate most
   of spam submissions.
 * But you wrote: “_forminator seems to be recording submissions that fail captcha_“.
   And this is something that should not be happening at all.
 * Forminator only saves successful submission and if captcha verification fails,
   submission cannot be made. So no submission should ever be saved if captcha doesn’t
   validate.
 * If you say it does it, it would suggest that either there’s some loophole that
   we are not yet aware of that allows bypassing it (though I would assume that 
   Akismet should still prevent most of such submissions) or the captcha itself 
   fails – as in “it actually doesn’t work sometimes”.
 * With that said, let me ask first:
 * 1. How did you determine/what made you suspect that there was failed captcha 
   verification for those saved spam submissions?
 * 2. I just tried to make a submission, deliberately not solving captcha; I got
   a proper error and no confirmation of submission; could you check and confirm
   if my submission (as Adam WPMU) got saved or not?
 * 3. In “Behavior” settings of the form where you enable Akismet, is Akismet set
   to “Fail submission” or to “Mark as Spam”?
 * 4. Do you have any caching plugin active and/or is there any server side cache
   and are you using any additional security plugins on site? if yes, what are those?
 * 5. And last but not least, could you share export of the form with us so we could
   test it on our end?
 * To do that:
 * – go to “Forminator -> Forms” page in site’s back-end
    – click on a little “gear”
   icon next to the form in question – select “Export” option from the drop-down
   menu there – copy given export code and put it at [https://pastebin](https://pastebin)
   or download export json file and put it at your Google Drive, Dropbox or similar–
   share a link to it in your response below.
 * Note:
 * 1. this will not include any submitted data/form submissions and none of configured
   credentials (such as e.g. reCaptcha keys or other); we don’t need them anyway
 * 2. if there’s any other “sensitive information” on the form that you’d rather
   not share – you may want to make a copy of the form first, edit it to remove 
   them and then share export of that copy
 * Best regards,
    Adam
 *  Thread Starter [pixelsandinkstudio](https://wordpress.org/support/users/pixelsandinkstudio/)
 * (@pixelsandinkstudio)
 * [2 years, 3 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/captcha-176/#post-17428755)
 * Hi Adam – Thanks so much for the detailed response. Here are some of the answers
   to your questions.
   1. I drew this conclusion because if I look at the analytics
   90% of the spam gets saved in the form, but doesn’t reach the thank you page (
   where it would be saved as a conversion). I suppose another possibility is the
   spam is getting past the captcha and other measures I have in place but clicks
   off after the submission has been completed but before the thank you page has
   had a chance to load. We’ve been getting several spam submissions per day, but
   we usually only see conversions for legitimate submissions. 2. I did not see 
   your submission, so I suppose this supports the idea the spam is actually making
   it past the recaptcha.3. It had previously been marked “mark as spam”. I just
   changed it to fail the submission.4. Yes, the website is built on divi running
   on wpengine.5. [https://pastebin.com/1NmwgwtV](https://pastebin.com/1NmwgwtV)
 *  [Kris – WPMU DEV Support](https://wordpress.org/support/users/wpmudevsupport13/)
 * (@wpmudevsupport13)
 * [2 years, 3 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/captcha-176/#post-17432368)
 * Hi [@pixelsandinkstudio](https://wordpress.org/support/users/pixelsandinkstudio/)
 * Thank you for additional details. I made some tests with your form on my lab 
   site and I was not able to replicate the same issue. The additional thing, which
   was mentioned by Adam above “while there’s never a 100% protection”, could be
   that the current spam bots technology is developing all the time, same as spam
   protection technology. Taking this into account, can you switch from Captcha 
   V2 to V3, observe the site for a few days (give some time for V3 to learn the
   traffic on the site), and see if will that give better results?
 * Kind Regards,
   Kris
 *  Plugin Support [Williams – WPMU DEV Support](https://wordpress.org/support/users/wpmudevsupport3/)
 * (@wpmudevsupport3)
 * [2 years, 3 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/captcha-176/#post-17451811)
 * Hi [@pixelsandinkstudio](https://wordpress.org/support/users/pixelsandinkstudio/),
 * We haven’t heard from you in a while, I’ll go and mark this thread as resolved.
   Note that you can still reply on this topic.
 * If you have any additional questions or require further help, please let us know!
 * Best regards,
    Laura

Viewing 4 replies - 1 through 4 (of 4 total)

The topic ‘Captcha’ is closed to new replies.

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## Tags

 * [reCAPTCHA](https://wordpress.org/support/topic-tag/recaptcha/)

 * 4 replies
 * 4 participants
 * Last reply from: [Williams – WPMU DEV Support](https://wordpress.org/support/users/wpmudevsupport3/)
 * Last activity: [2 years, 3 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/captcha-176/#post-17451811)
 * Status: resolved