Website attacks

[Tim7332]

Hi,

I've been having someone visit my website and use some kind of program to email me through my site like 50 times a day.

It's been going on for a few days now and I was wondering if there was any way to protect myself from this? It's a pain in the ass filtering them for any good leads.

[ResaleBroker]

You could always encrypt your email address.

[Aaron]

I've been having someone visit my website and use some kind of program to email me through my site like 50 times a day.

Tim, Are the emails coming from your contact forms?
Aaron.

[HHI Golf Guy]

Chances are that someone is spoofing your email address and has not actually sent mail through your mail server. Contact your web host tech support department and they will probably take a look at the original message headers and be able to tell you if your mail server has been commandeered.

If you are using an email script (i.e. formmail.php) there is a chance that a spammer has been able to send email through that script. Anyone that uses a standard email script should take precautions to safeguard the script including:

1. Placing it in a protected directory
2. Rename the script to a gibberish name (i.e. Fe26yB1A.php)
3. Change the script settings so that it can only send email through your domain.

[Tim7332]

Tim, Are the emails coming from your contact forms?
Aaron.

Yes they are coming from both my feedback and my search form. sometimes even my seller form is used.

It happens in bursts and isnt constant throughout the day.

[Aaron]

As HHI Golf Guy posted there is a chance that a spammer has been able to send email through your script formmail script.

The quickest solution I have found is to check the submit button's value on the before you send the email from the formmail script. Or if your submit button is an image ... set a hidden input field and check for that value before you send the mail. Chances are the spammers are not using your contact form, they are sending requests right to the script that sends the mail.

[kyle422]

The quickest solution I have found is to check the submit button's value on the before you send the email from the formmail script. Or if your submit button is an image ... set a hidden input field and check for that value before you send the mail. Chances are the spammers are not using your contact form, they are sending requests right to the script that sends the mail.

How do you set a value on a button?

[Aaron]

Like this ...
HTML

<input type="submit" name="submit" value="Submit" />

Then The PHP

if (isset($_POST['submit']) && $_POST['submit'] == "Submit" )

Of Course this is not the only check I would do server side, but it is a start.

[Falcon Living]

Hey Aaron can you check out Falcon Living server too. I have been having the same issue all the time but I think ours is a spoof because they are non existent.

[pcdoc]

Check your server logs to find the IP that's accessing your form's page. Then block the IP address. It may take multiple times to block all the offending addresses as the spammers tend to change IPs with varying frequency.

Or, change your form page name, or do away with it entirely, relying on an email link.

BTW, here's a near foolproof method of encrypting an email address

http://automaticlabs.com/products/enkoderform/