Fluent Forms Spam: How to Stop Bots and Human Spam
Fluent Forms is quick to build with, and spammers find those forms just as quickly. The plugin has useful spam options of its own. This guide explains what they do, what they leave open, and how to close the gap.
What Fluent Forms already does
According to its documentation, Fluent Forms has a honeypot: a hidden field that people cannot see but bots tend to fill in. You turn it on under Global Settings > General > Miscellaneous with the Enable Honeypot Security toggle. It also supports Google reCAPTCHA (v2 and v3) and hCaptcha, which you can load on every form or add to individual forms, and it has a setting to deny empty submissions.
The same documentation points out the limit of a honeypot: it blocks bots, not manual spam. Someone who types a message into your form, or a paid service that does it for them, is not caught by a hidden field.
Closing the gap
Add rules that read the submission rather than the visitor. Maspik supports Fluent Forms in the free plugin:
- Install and activate Maspik. IP verification and its own honeypot are on by default, so you get two more bot checks without touching your forms.
- Block repeated words and names. Add them to the textarea and text field lists. Matching is by whole words since version 2.4.0, so include variations.
- Control the email and phone fields. Block domains, fragments and patterns in the email field, and require the formats you accept in the phone field. If you need a custom telephone field in Fluent Forms itself, see Fluent Forms: Custom Phone Field Validation.
- Cap links and length in the message field.
- Read the spam log a few days later and loosen any rule that caught a real enquiry.
Should you keep the CAPTCHA?
We would remove it. A challenge on a form is friction for real visitors, and for a lead form a lost enquiry costs more than a spam message. Switch it off once the layers above are in place, then watch the spam log and your inbox for a week. If bots come back, you can enable it again. The two approaches also work side by side, as we describe in Maspik vs reCAPTCHA.
Common spam patterns on Fluent Forms
- Bots that fill every field: a honeypot catches many of them. Fluent Forms’ own honeypot and Maspik’s can both be on.
- Pitches and links in the message box: blocked words and a link limit.
- Empty or near-empty submissions: Fluent Forms has a setting to deny empty submissions; length limits in Maspik cover very short ones.
- Invented phone numbers: accepted formats in the phone field rules.
- Throwaway email addresses: email fragments, wildcards and domain endings.
The settings that matter, in one place
| Where | Setting | What it does |
|---|---|---|
| Fluent Forms | Enable Honeypot Security | Hidden field that bots tend to fill in |
| Fluent Forms | reCAPTCHA / hCaptcha | Checks the visitor, loaded on all forms or one |
| Fluent Forms | Deny empty submission | Rejects blank entries |
| Maspik | IP verification and honeypot | On by default after activation |
| Maspik | By Field Options | Words, emails, phones and links per field type |
How to test it before you rely on it
- Open the form in a private browser window and send an ordinary message with a real-looking name, email and phone number. Confirm it reaches your inbox.
- Send a second message that contains one of the words you blocked. It should be refused, and a new row should appear in the spam log naming the field and the reason.
- Remove the test word if it is something a real visitor might write.
Ten minutes of testing now saves you from discovering a rule that is too strict through a lost enquiry.
Frequently asked questions
Does the Fluent Forms honeypot stop all spam?
No. Its documentation points out that a honeypot blocks bots but not manual spam, which is why it suggests pairing it with a CAPTCHA, or with content rules like the ones above.
Is Fluent Forms supported in the free version of Maspik?
Yes. No Pro licence is needed for Fluent Forms.
Can I validate phone numbers inside Fluent Forms too?
Yes. Our guide on custom phone field validation in Fluent Forms shows how to add a telephone field with its own checks.
Get started
See how Maspik works with Fluent Forms, or install it free from Plugins > Add New.