Joomla SpambotCheck Extension

This plugin stops spam at the very source. It leverages major DNS and e-mail black list providers to prevent spam sources from registration and login into your site.
SpambotCheck delivers you real-time spam protection which is constantly and diligently being worked on by various international nonprofit organizations.

Feature Overview

- SpambotCheck offers simple opt-in configuration for:
- Black-list providers to use
- Points of impact to survey (registration, registration and login)
- Spam ID information to use (IP, e-mail address and/or username)
- Use of CDNs such as Cloudflare
- Regular Expression option for all email lists and IP lists
- SpambotCheck allows you to maintain your own personalized local listings:
- White-list (e-mail and/or IP)
- Black-list (e-mail and/or IP)
- Get an instant overview of spam attacks targeting your site:
- Log, view and edit spam attack information
- Receive incident notification via e-mail
- Registered users who show suspicious behavior are labeled accordingly
- Currently supported black list providers:
- stopforumspam.com
- projecthoneypot.org
- sorbs.net
- spamcop.net
- Languages:
- English
- German
- Spanish
- French
- Italian
- Estnian
- Portuguese

SpambotCheck is a small, concise and most importantly a non-invasive plugin, that already offers you about 99.5% efficiency in spam attack protection.
The plugin does not need to inspect any contents and therefore is suitable in all situations where there is not any mail text or submission text available.
And even if you are dealing with text submission in forums and blogs, as long as registration and/or login is required, you might consider to use SpambotCheck in combination with additional content analyzing tools that run afterwards.
SpambotCheck would then be acting as the outer most tier of any composed spam protection stack that provides you with the highest site protection level possible.

Support issues or feature requests are very welcomed at our SpambotCheck user forum.

A special version of SpambotCheck is already bundled with our custom form creator 'visforms' to protect all your exposed custom made forms right from the start.

Your Contribution Matters
If you happen to encounter the unlikely case to be one of the first targets of a yet unlisted spam source, feel free to report to one of the above mentioned black list providers.
SpambotCheck's own enhanced users view provides you with all information you need to easily file a report.

Release Notes:

Version 5.1.0
Maturity: Stable
System Requirements: Joomla 5.x, PHP 8.1 to PHP 8.3
Date: November 11, 2024
New Feature
- PHP 8.3 Compatibility
- Allow for Regular Expressions for whitelists and blacklists (IPs and emails).
- Add Regular Expression Examples.
- Add SpambotCheck IP Test-Helper Plugin to develop and test Regular Expressions for IP whitelist and IP blacklist.
- Add documentation for new feature: Automatic support for CDNs like 'Cloudflare'
Bug fix
- Fixed Fatal Error: SpambotCheckHelper::cleanUserSpambotTable(): Argument #1 ($userIP) must be of type string, null given

Most Recent Release History:

Version 5.0.0
Maturity: Stable
System Requirements: Joomla 5.0 or higher
Date: January 29, 2024
New Feature
- Joomla 5 Compatibility
- PHP 8.2 Compatibility
- Automatic support for CDNs like 'Cloudflare'

Version 4.0.4
Maturity: Stable
System Requirements: Joomla 4.0 or higher
Date: July 17, 2023
Bug fix
- Fix Error on suspicious registration detection: "SpambotCheckHelper::getDateDiff(): Argument #1 ($firstDate) must be of type Date, string given."

Version 4.0.3
Maturity: Stable
System Requirements: Joomla 4.0 or higher
Date: Apr. 14, 2022
Bug fix
- Fix Error on all three backend views (Users/Logs/About): "Error 404: View not found"

Version 4.0.2
Maturity: Stable
System Requirements: Joomla 4.0 or higher
Date: Feb. 17, 2022
Bug fix
- Fix Warning in Joomla Database Maintenance: "Table has the wrong type or attributes for column 'COLUMN' "

Version 4.0.1
Maturity: Stable
System Requirements: Joomla 4.0 or higher
Date: Feb. 16, 2022
Bug fix
- Fix Error during installation: "Typed property pkg_spambotcheckInstallerScript::$versionInstalled must be string, null used" on php 7.4 and 8

November 22, 2018
Release of Version 4.0.0 Alpha for Joomla! 4

November 20, 2018
Changes for Version 3.0.1 (Joomla! 3.9)
Code Refactoring
Support Joomla! Privacy Tool Suite

March 24, 2015
Changes for Version 1.3.13 (Joomla! 3.x):
Removed provider spambusted.com as it stopped its service.
Bugfixes concerning both blacklist and whitelist.
Bugfixes concerning the various filter functions of the component's data views.
Code was thoroughly refactored and comprehensively automatically tested.

February 10, 2014
Changes for Version 1.3.12 (Joomla! 3.2):
Bugfix for Joomla! 3.2.2 UsersHelper::getActions() was changed in Joomla! 3.2.2 and calling it threw a fatal error.
Version is only compatible with 3.2.2 or higher (For Joomla 3.0 to 3.2.1 use Version 1.3.11).

October 18, 2013
Changes for Version 1.3.11 (Joomla! 3.0):
Only check e-mail whitelist when an e-mail is passed.
Only check IP whitelist when an IP is passed.
Changes for Version 1.1.11 (Joomla! 2.5):
Added e-mail blacklist and added a component with several views to manage suspicious users and logged spam attack data.

June 19, 2013
Changes for Version 1.3.10 (Joomla! 3.0):
Handled deprecated and modified functions in Joomla! 3.0.
Changes for Version 1.3.10 (Joomla! 3.0) and 1.1.10 (Joomla! 2.5):
Included script.php to handle flawless auto update.
Changed all tags for language files to a Joomla! compatible format.
General refactoring and minor bug fixes.

April 11, 2013
Changes for Version 1.3.9 (Joomla! 3.0) and 1.1.9 (Joomla! 2.5):
Improvements in finding all super administrators.
Integration of new Joomla! Updater (you can use the update function of the extension manager to find and install updates).

March 21, 2013
Changes for Version 1.3.8 (Joomla! 3.0) and 1.1.8 (Joomla! 2.5):
New parameters added to specifically control admin e-mail notification about spam attacks.
Include full user information (username, e-mail and IP) when logging spam attack information into the database (some of this information haven't been stored in previous versions).
Changes for Version 1.1.8 (Joomla! 2.5):
Allow generic e-mail in the whitelist.
The e-mail whitelist is now a text area having more space.
Check cUrl availability during installation (which was already available for Joomla! 3.0).

January 14, 2013
Changes for Version 1.3.7 (Joomla! 3.0)
Compatibility for Joomla! 3.0.
Allow generic e-mail in the whitelist.
The e-mail whitelist is now a text area having more space.
Check cUrl availability during installation (which was already available for Joomla! 3.0).