Real people don't submit comments in 0.5 seconds. Hammer those Spambots!
| Author: | wpspamhammer (profile at wordpress.org) |
| WordPress version required: | 3.0.0 |
| WordPress version tested: | |
| Plugin version: | 3.9.7.1 |
| Added to WordPress repository: | 23-05-2013 |
| Last updated: | 28-11-2014
Warning! This plugin has not been updated in over 2 years. It may no longer be maintained or supported and may have compatibility issues when used with more recent versions of WordPress.
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| Rating, %: | 80 |
| Rated by: | 7 |
| Plugin URI: | |
| Total downloads: | 13 988 |
 Click to start download |
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"I've always had a problem with Spam - I'd tried every plugin out there, as well as every default feature to keep them at bay but nothing worked as well as I'd hoped, and recently our spam attacks hit a new level, where I needed to moderate everything manually - an exhaustive and time consuming process with 10 spam to every 1 human. Since installing this and disabling every other feature - I've not had one instance of spam. Unbelievable. Thank you very much."
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Install with a simple download and activate -- no setup required. You can comfortably try the service and contribute back to it as a license owner after using it for some days.
Yes, This Tool Actually Works
Most WordPress anti spam tools amount to garbage, both built in to WordPress, and third party plugins. The built in tools are mediocre, and at best force you to babysit new comments and registrations.
On the other hand, third party plugins are all over the map. Many make your real, interested readers jump through hoops to sign up and/or leave comments on your site, assuming they are that patient.
Others simply don’t work anymore, and you are left reacting to spam invasions. Things shouldn’t be this way, and there’s a reason those plugins don’t work: they’re built on the wrong idea.
Spam must be defended against, right? Wrong. Spam hurts the invaluable image of your business and saps your time – and your anti spam must violently fight to destroy the Spammers, not defend against them.
If you don’t take the initiative, Spammers walk over you. That’s why Spam Hammer is the best WordPress spam blocker: it takes the fight to spammers, instead of waiting for them to bring it to you.
There were many others in a situation similar to yours, who chose to try a tool that fights back. See what other business owners and professionals that tried Spam Hammer say.
Flip The Script, Be The Aggressor
Spammers have things to protect as well – things they consider precious and valuable. If you hit them where it hurts, Spammers run in the other direction and look for their next target.
What is precious to Spammers? To know this, you must know that the spam they put out isn’t sent directly by them; it’s sent through a service they pay for, and expect to get a ROI from.
Spammers spend money trying to blast your site, and if that fails, they hire a person solve whatever captcha or antispam you’re running. If even that fails, the Spammer spent that money – for nothing.
If it happens once or twice, the Spammer only loses a few cents. But, if they continue to fail, the costs become significant. It’s like your site is surrounded by a spiked shield. They then scratch off your site.
When the owners of spamming services notice this pattern, they attempt to reverse engineer the anti spam. When they can’t, as with Spam Hammer, they lose customers and email us nasty words 😉
Spam Hammer has several ways to fight for you hands-free, and the most overt among these are 1. Geo blocking 2. Reverse time sink and 3. Ad network slap.
1. Geo Blocking: Common Sense
Most spam is made on computers outside the home country of your site. Some countries tacitly permit spamming, while others like Bulgaria are safe havens for big spam services due to the country’s laws.
If you run a local business in the USA, why would you accept comments from computers in Ukraine? There is no reason, and by blocking them, you block all spammers from that country automatically.
Spam Hammer provides both country and continent blocking. This is especially aggressive against spam services – they can’t just pack up and go to another country, and are helpless against this.
By default, popular spamming countries are blocked, but you can change these at any time to fit you.
2. Reverse Time Sink: An eye for an eye
Spammers enjoy the luxury of being able to click “spam” and blast your site within seconds; over the following seconds, their spam program moves to the other innocent targets and hits them.
Spammers perversely expose themselves to tens of thousands of sites, so the amount of time they spend blasting one can’t stretch too long.
What if I told you this is a major risk factor for them, far beyond blacklisting? What if visitors had to wait 15 seconds before posting a comment? What if real readers weren’t bothered by it, only Spammers?
Spam Hammer adds this feature to your site. By the time real readers finish loading and reading your page or post, and scroll down to write a comment, way more than 15 seconds have gone by.
In a rush to move on, Spammers ignore the required 15 seconds, try to jam in a comment way before the timer is up, and make it super easy to catch them – all without touching a single legitimate reader.
This causes Spammers to run around like chickens with their heads cut off, trying to figure out why their spam isn’t going through after multiple attempts when there is no captcha on the page.
The optimal timer is 15 seconds long and this is something that generally doesn’t have to be adjusted; though, you do have the option to raise or lower this to what suits you.
3. Ad Network Slap a.k.a. Uncloaking
Spam comments always link to one or more sites. Many links are cloaked so you can’t see the actual site until you click the cloaked link are redirected to the real one. And, Spammers aren’t only hiding it from you.
Why do Spammers go through the trouble of cloaking their links? In truth, they are scared you’d discover “why”: 1. fear of termination by Ad Networks, and/or 2. fear of penalties by Google.
Spammers’ cloaked links redirect to an Ad Network’s site. Spammers use the cloak links to cover their tracks so the Ad Network won’t know where the click came from, and then pocket a commission for that dirty click.
Most Ad Networks actually prohibit this in their terms of service. Imagine you’re a site owner paying for all of these clicks that aren’t converting. The Ad Network loses a customer and gets bad word of mouth.
Without cloaking, Ad Networks can log suspicious activity. When the Spammer is reported to the Ad Network, they can then terminate the Spammer’s account and seize their funds.
Spam Hammer automatically uncloaks and records these links for reporting. You won’t find many cases where it’s beneficial to allow link cloaking on your site, so all links, spam and ham, are uncloaked.
Never Again
Never again will your real readers' comments be recognized as spam, leaving them wondering if the content they took the time to write on your site even reached the other end.
Never again will they contact you and ask you “why”. Never again will readers lose the pleasure of commenting on your site, and instead spreading the word about your site having problems.
Never again will you get hundreds of emails about spam comments in your queue, awaiting you to pick out the one or two comments that are real and mass deleting the rest, over and over.
Never again will already registered, legitimate readers, including administrators, be blocked from posting after it’s stupidly clear they are not spammers.
Never again will you run an impotent anti spam solution with endless confusing settings or setup that requires technical skills that aren’t in your reach as a busy professional.
Try It Risk-Free
The testimonials are there because this is a professional service. I'm extending a week of Free, completely unlocked usage and support of the plugin to professionals and businesses. There is zero risk for you.
Compatibility
- Standard Comment Form 2. Standard Registration Form 3. [NEW] Contact Form 7
Incompatible with: 1. Akismet 2. Jetpack Comments 3. Disquz 4. static HTML caching plugins 5. and any other unlisted comment, registration, or contact form plugin.
This automatically disables the aforementioned incompatible plugins, except Jetpack.
Testimonials
Kathy says: Since installing spam hammer, I've seen a sharp decrease in spam comments.
Tony says: Work perfect, no spam till now and it really save my time. already Spambot Blocks: 34 (1days) i set up my Countdown to 19' i have been blocking : BANGLADESH , BELARUS, CHINA, INDIA, KAZAKHSTAN, PAKISTAN, RUSSIAN FEDERATION,TAIWAN,and UKRAINE great plug ing
Vitaris says: Just dropping in to say this plugin is a life saver. We've had anti-spam measures in place for years, but in the last couple of weeks bots have started to get around those measures and have been hammering my forums incessantly. This blocks well over 70 spam bots a day, so thank you! I now give a little cheer each time I get a mail notification (activated just for my gratification that another bot was foiled).
Mick says: Spam Attack Preventions: 105567 Unique Spambots Today 8, Week: 8, Month: 1585, Year: 7469 Been working great for me
Anders says: Hammer 3-Series is working very well. Before I installed this amazing plugin I got lots of spam and now not a single one, so I will definitely buy this one for my site when trial is over.
Jeff says: It's working great.
Sascha says: The Spam Hammer has definitely helped kill all the bots that were accessing my company's forums. Great job on the coding of the mod.
Andrew says: Don't need to manually approve new users any more. It does such a good job I can let new users straight in to the forum with no manual intervention from me 🙂
Jim says: It is hammering away! I have had around 8-10 alerts since I've installed it.
Rick says: Spam Attack Preventions: 18295 Unique Spambots Today: 15, Week: 362, Month: 597, Year: 597
Vladmir says: things are looking good. Spammer signups are down, very solid product all in all!
Jasmit says: the mod is working great and yes now I can say....SPAMMERS SUCK....
Mark says: I went and pulled this from my stats (from running for about week & a half with SpamHammer 3 platinum): Spambot Blocks: 31105
David says: I was spending a 1/2 hour to an hour each day approving new members, and that was with Glowhost and Captcha active. I deactivated Glowhost and I installed this mod a week ago and have had over 5500 spam registrations blocked and I've been able to turn off modded registration. Only one or two people spammers got through. I'm definitely liking this mod.
Wayne says: I honestly thought this wouldn't be much good but its amazing, only installed it half hour ago and 5 dodgy registrations blocked! INSTALL IT NOW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Jim says: Brilliant Mod! After initial implementation, over 1,600 blocked attempts in less than a 12 hour period.
Patrick says: Need to say it works like a charm. After installation few days ago had more than 40 bots that where blocked! Great marked as installed! Using vB4.2 Pl3... It saves me a lot of time to ban and remove those and now have to do nothing at all
Neno says: my programmer loaded it today: I turned it on: caught 12 bots in 30 minutes registering in less than 15 sec. LOVE IT, now i can turn registration back on. TY
Jason says: already blocked 33 in about 30 minutes on one of our sites. Spam had gotten so bad, we had resorted to manual registrations on all of our sites. (We still do it for other reasons on one of them, which is also the one that this plugin has denied over 30 spammers in the last 1/2 hour). This could be the single-best mod ever made. Thank you, very much.
Pete says: 10,100 bots rejected so far nice.
John says: I installed this about a week ago before going to bed, woke up the next morning and found 134 emails from blocked registrants Have it set to 9 seconds and most of them had a time difference between 3 and 5 seconds. Love it!
Charlie says: What a great mod. Within the first 24 hours I had 50 emails. Works so well I had to turn the emails off. Thank you for sharing!
Jarret says: Awesome so far! Just installed and have already blocked 2 spammers within 5 minutes of installation.