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Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)
What is the "Verification" box on your contact form?
The contact form on this site contains a section titled "Verification", which displays an obscured image of some random letters and numbers. To successfully submit the form you must type the code from that image into the text box underneath it. If you don't enter the code, or you type the code incorrectly, the form will not be submitted and you will need to try again.
Why do I need to enter a code? All I want to do is ask you a question!
Form verification is becoming very common. The reason is that these systems currently offer the best protection against some pervasive Internet threats:
- Email address harvesting;
- Form "spam" (unwanted junk email); and
- Form hijacking.
Spammers, virus writers and other undesirables use a range of automated programs which "crawl" around the Internet causing trouble for web site owners (and Internet users generally). These programs can collect email addresses displayed on web pages - a process called "harvesting" - and add any addresses they find to spam mailing lists. Other programs can automatically fill in any contact forms they find with junk, and some can even "hijack" some types of form and use them to send spam email and viruses to other email addresses - not just the address the contact form is linked to.
A form with a graphical verification system is immune to these type of programs because:
- No email addresses are included on the web page, not even hidden in the page code. There is nothing for a web crawler to harvest.
- The form can not be used to send spam because the spam programs can not read the code embeded in the image - a human needs to physically read the code and type it into the appropriate box.
I'm sick of spam too - can you add form verification to my web site?
We will be happy to discuss options for making your web site and your email addresses more secure and spam-resistant, including the use of form verification systems. Please contact us to discuss updating your web site. (Don't forget to enter the code!)