Answered

Manual Spammer - How to identify/catch/block

  • 18 December 2021
  • 6 replies
  • 127 views
Z

Hi all

I’ve got a curious situation: one of my warm email lists has sprung a nasty! This individual manually fills up my typeform repeatedly and books in my calendly over and over again (using my email address :-D)

is there a way to identify and block this person? I can see the networkID but as per the docs the IP address is not stored, and I cant figure out how to ID this person so I can remove them from my list.

 

Thanks very much!

Z

icon

Best answer by john.desborough 20 December 2021, 15:23

View original

6 replies

Liz
Rank
Userlevel 7
Badge +5

Hi @Zub Wow, that sounds very annoying! If you know their email, you could set a logic jump that would prevent them from filling out the form with that email, though it wouldn’t prevent them from filling out the Calendly. (You would need to speak to Calendly about that.)

How often is this person submitting/spamming your form? 

Life is a series of awkward moments separated by snacks.
Z

Hey @Liz 

Thanks for your comment!  If i knew their email i’d be down their throat in a heart beat ;)

 

as expected they know that I cannot know who is filling up a typeform unless they self-identify.  

this person pretty much booked me up for an entire week and caused me quite a loss of sales.  Since my calendly only allows for a week out they hit the hard limit from calendly and seem to have calmed down for now.  Actually my calendly has got manual exceptions for the Xmas break so maybe they’ll be back in the new year. who knows!

hence why I’m looking for a more robust solution!

As per your signature, I’m now going to indulge in some snacks :)

Liz
Rank
Userlevel 7
Badge +5

Haha yes, snacks are always a good idea, @Zub ! It may be worth requiring an email for a short amount of time so you can capture their information, as our forms won’t gather any data that isn't asked on the form. Then, you could use a logic jump to prevent that email from submitting the form. 

 

Life is a series of awkward moments separated by snacks.
Z

Hi @Liz !

Not sure I understand you :(

my form absolutely does ask for an email up front.  but they put in my “reply to” email address, from my email campaigns.

 

So it looks like I’m filling in the form and booking time with myself.  They even put my first name and last name! I already have logic jumps to screen people based on their answers, but if they put my email in then there is no way of finding out who they really are right?

 

 

Liz
Rank
Userlevel 7
Badge +5

OH! I see. Well, that makes it a little trickier, @Zub . I don’t think there is another solution we can provide, but it may be worth asking our compliance team through a support ticket. I’ll escalate this to them, and they should respond to you shortly. 

If you don’t hear from them within 2 days, let me know. 

Life is a series of awkward moments separated by snacks.
john.desborough
Userlevel 7
Badge +6

@Zub - maybe you could put in a logic rule on the email question that says ‘if email = youremailaddress then jump to ending that says sorry that is not valid email.. 

at least that would stop them from using your email.. not much help if they use another .. 

if you track email opens and link clicks in your ESP for your campaigns, you should be able to get some idea of where the spammer is coming from. You might also use a subscriber specific identifier in your email message url link (ie utm variable with client id ??) that would also track the inbound traffic to a degree.. 

just a few thoughts.. 

 

des

 

If your third coffee of the day is not helping you with your Typeform, maybe we can help you find your answers...

Reply


Still need help?

Don't be shy and ask the community.

Ask your question here!
Community T&Cs