{"id":7760,"date":"2023-12-05T10:14:01","date_gmt":"2023-12-05T17:14:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.boisestate.edu\/webguide\/?p=7760"},"modified":"2026-01-13T11:37:38","modified_gmt":"2026-01-13T18:37:38","slug":"help-avoid-gravity-forms-spam-with-captcha","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.boisestate.edu\/webguide\/2023\/12\/05\/help-avoid-gravity-forms-spam-with-captcha\/","title":{"rendered":"Avoid Gravity Forms spam with CAPTCHA"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Boise State&#8217;s WordPress environment is seeing an increase in automated attempts to compromise university websites through Gravity Forms. These attempts result in form submissions and notifications that contain unwanted junk code.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>You can improve the security of your Gravity Forms by adding a CAPTCHA (<strong>C<\/strong>ompletely <strong>A<\/strong>utomated <strong>P<\/strong>ublic <strong>T<\/strong>uring test to tell <strong>C<\/strong>omputers and <strong>H<\/strong>umans <strong>A<\/strong>part). A CAPTCHA test is designed to be easy for humans to solve but difficult for automated bots to complete due to CAPTCHA tests often involving tasks requiring human cognition (such as identifying objects in images or solving puzzles). By requiring your visitors to pass a CAPTCHA test before submitting a form, you can significantly reduce spam submissions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Alternatively, you can <a href=\"https:\/\/www.boisestate.edu\/oit\/contact-and-hours\/\">contact the Help Desk<\/a> to request the WordPress Support Team add a CAPTCHA for you.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-how-to-add-a-captcha\">How to add a CAPTCHA<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<ol class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Enabling CAPTCHA on a boisestate.edu Gravity Form is simple:<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Log in to WordPress and edit your Gravity Form (<strong>Forms<\/strong> > <strong>Edit<\/strong>)<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Expand the <strong>Advanced Fields<\/strong> tab on the right-hand side of the screen.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Select <strong>CAPTCHA<\/strong> to add to the bottom of your form (make sure the CAPTCHA is the last field on your form above the &#8220;submit&#8221; button).<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Select <strong>Save Form<\/strong> to save your change.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n\n\n\n<p>While a CAPTCHA is not 100% effective at preventing all spam, it is very effective at stopping bots and should significantly help in preventing that type of mass-spamming we are seeing in some forms.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-need-assistance\">Need assistance?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.boisestate.edu\/oit\/contact-and-hours\/\">Contact the Help Desk<\/a> to escalate requests for services and assistance to the WordPress Support Team.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Boise State&#8217;s WordPress environment is seeing an increase in automated attempts to compromise university websites&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":90,"featured_media":7762,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3157],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7760","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-wordpress-news"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v27.2 (Yoast SEO v27.2) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Avoid Gravity Forms spam with CAPTCHA - Webguide<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Reduce Gravity Forms spam with CAPTCHA protection. Boise State guide on implementing spam prevention for WordPress contact forms.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.boisestate.edu\/webguide\/2023\/12\/05\/help-avoid-gravity-forms-spam-with-captcha\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Avoid Gravity Forms spam with CAPTCHA\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Reduce Gravity Forms spam with CAPTCHA protection. Boise State guide on implementing spam prevention for WordPress contact forms.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.boisestate.edu\/webguide\/2023\/12\/05\/help-avoid-gravity-forms-spam-with-captcha\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Webguide\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2023-12-05T17:14:01+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2026-01-13T18:37:38+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.boisestate.edu\/webguide\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/16\/2023\/12\/captcha-664x630.png\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"664\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"630\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Shad\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Shad\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"TechArticle\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.boisestate.edu\/webguide\/2023\/12\/05\/help-avoid-gravity-forms-spam-with-captcha\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.boisestate.edu\/webguide\/2023\/12\/05\/help-avoid-gravity-forms-spam-with-captcha\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Shad\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.boisestate.edu\/webguide\/#\/schema\/person\/026a5fb49b740daab0e72d8d199f88f2\"},\"headline\":\"Avoid Gravity Forms spam with CAPTCHA\",\"datePublished\":\"2023-12-05T17:14:01+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2026-01-13T18:37:38+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.boisestate.edu\/webguide\/2023\/12\/05\/help-avoid-gravity-forms-spam-with-captcha\/\"},\"wordCount\":259,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.boisestate.edu\/webguide\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.boisestate.edu\/webguide\/2023\/12\/05\/help-avoid-gravity-forms-spam-with-captcha\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.boisestate.edu\/webguide\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/16\/2023\/12\/captcha.png\",\"articleSection\":[\"WordPress News\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.boisestate.edu\/webguide\/2023\/12\/05\/help-avoid-gravity-forms-spam-with-captcha\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.boisestate.edu\/webguide\/2023\/12\/05\/help-avoid-gravity-forms-spam-with-captcha\/\",\"name\":\"Avoid Gravity Forms spam with CAPTCHA - Webguide\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.boisestate.edu\/webguide\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.boisestate.edu\/webguide\/2023\/12\/05\/help-avoid-gravity-forms-spam-with-captcha\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.boisestate.edu\/webguide\/2023\/12\/05\/help-avoid-gravity-forms-spam-with-captcha\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.boisestate.edu\/webguide\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/16\/2023\/12\/captcha.png\",\"datePublished\":\"2023-12-05T17:14:01+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2026-01-13T18:37:38+00:00\",\"description\":\"Reduce Gravity Forms spam with CAPTCHA protection. Boise State guide on implementing spam prevention for WordPress contact forms.\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.boisestate.edu\/webguide\/2023\/12\/05\/help-avoid-gravity-forms-spam-with-captcha\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.boisestate.edu\/webguide\/2023\/12\/05\/help-avoid-gravity-forms-spam-with-captcha\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.boisestate.edu\/webguide\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/16\/2023\/12\/captcha.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.boisestate.edu\/webguide\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/16\/2023\/12\/captcha.png\",\"width\":664,\"height\":664,\"caption\":\"Example of a CAPTCHA test featuring a checkbox next to the words \\\"I'm not a robot\\\"\"},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.boisestate.edu\/webguide\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.boisestate.edu\/webguide\/\",\"name\":\"Webguide\",\"description\":\"\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.boisestate.edu\/webguide\/#organization\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.boisestate.edu\/webguide\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.boisestate.edu\/webguide\/#organization\",\"name\":\"Boise State University\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.boisestate.edu\/webguide\/\",\"logo\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.boisestate.edu\/webguide\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.boisestate.edu\/webguide\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/16\/2025\/09\/boisestate-primarylogo-2color-rgb-scaled.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.boisestate.edu\/webguide\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/16\/2025\/09\/boisestate-primarylogo-2color-rgb-scaled.png\",\"width\":2560,\"height\":1142,\"caption\":\"Boise State University\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.boisestate.edu\/webguide\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\"}},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.boisestate.edu\/webguide\/#\/schema\/person\/026a5fb49b740daab0e72d8d199f88f2\",\"name\":\"Shad\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.boisestate.edu\/webguide\/author\/sjessen\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO Premium plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Avoid Gravity Forms spam with CAPTCHA - Webguide","description":"Reduce Gravity Forms spam with CAPTCHA protection. Boise State guide on implementing spam prevention for WordPress contact forms.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.boisestate.edu\/webguide\/2023\/12\/05\/help-avoid-gravity-forms-spam-with-captcha\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Avoid Gravity Forms spam with CAPTCHA","og_description":"Reduce Gravity Forms spam with CAPTCHA protection. Boise State guide on implementing spam prevention for WordPress contact forms.","og_url":"https:\/\/www.boisestate.edu\/webguide\/2023\/12\/05\/help-avoid-gravity-forms-spam-with-captcha\/","og_site_name":"Webguide","article_published_time":"2023-12-05T17:14:01+00:00","article_modified_time":"2026-01-13T18:37:38+00:00","og_image":[{"width":664,"height":630,"url":"https:\/\/www.boisestate.edu\/webguide\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/16\/2023\/12\/captcha-664x630.png","type":"image\/png"}],"author":"Shad","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Shad","Est. reading time":"2 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"TechArticle","@id":"https:\/\/www.boisestate.edu\/webguide\/2023\/12\/05\/help-avoid-gravity-forms-spam-with-captcha\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.boisestate.edu\/webguide\/2023\/12\/05\/help-avoid-gravity-forms-spam-with-captcha\/"},"author":{"name":"Shad","@id":"https:\/\/www.boisestate.edu\/webguide\/#\/schema\/person\/026a5fb49b740daab0e72d8d199f88f2"},"headline":"Avoid Gravity Forms spam with CAPTCHA","datePublished":"2023-12-05T17:14:01+00:00","dateModified":"2026-01-13T18:37:38+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.boisestate.edu\/webguide\/2023\/12\/05\/help-avoid-gravity-forms-spam-with-captcha\/"},"wordCount":259,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.boisestate.edu\/webguide\/#organization"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.boisestate.edu\/webguide\/2023\/12\/05\/help-avoid-gravity-forms-spam-with-captcha\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.boisestate.edu\/webguide\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/16\/2023\/12\/captcha.png","articleSection":["WordPress News"],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.boisestate.edu\/webguide\/2023\/12\/05\/help-avoid-gravity-forms-spam-with-captcha\/","url":"https:\/\/www.boisestate.edu\/webguide\/2023\/12\/05\/help-avoid-gravity-forms-spam-with-captcha\/","name":"Avoid Gravity Forms spam with CAPTCHA - Webguide","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.boisestate.edu\/webguide\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.boisestate.edu\/webguide\/2023\/12\/05\/help-avoid-gravity-forms-spam-with-captcha\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.boisestate.edu\/webguide\/2023\/12\/05\/help-avoid-gravity-forms-spam-with-captcha\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.boisestate.edu\/webguide\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/16\/2023\/12\/captcha.png","datePublished":"2023-12-05T17:14:01+00:00","dateModified":"2026-01-13T18:37:38+00:00","description":"Reduce Gravity Forms spam with CAPTCHA protection. Boise State guide on implementing spam prevention for WordPress contact forms.","inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.boisestate.edu\/webguide\/2023\/12\/05\/help-avoid-gravity-forms-spam-with-captcha\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.boisestate.edu\/webguide\/2023\/12\/05\/help-avoid-gravity-forms-spam-with-captcha\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/www.boisestate.edu\/webguide\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/16\/2023\/12\/captcha.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.boisestate.edu\/webguide\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/16\/2023\/12\/captcha.png","width":664,"height":664,"caption":"Example of a CAPTCHA test featuring a checkbox next to the words \"I'm not a robot\""},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.boisestate.edu\/webguide\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.boisestate.edu\/webguide\/","name":"Webguide","description":"","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.boisestate.edu\/webguide\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.boisestate.edu\/webguide\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/www.boisestate.edu\/webguide\/#organization","name":"Boise State University","url":"https:\/\/www.boisestate.edu\/webguide\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.boisestate.edu\/webguide\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.boisestate.edu\/webguide\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/16\/2025\/09\/boisestate-primarylogo-2color-rgb-scaled.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.boisestate.edu\/webguide\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/16\/2025\/09\/boisestate-primarylogo-2color-rgb-scaled.png","width":2560,"height":1142,"caption":"Boise State University"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.boisestate.edu\/webguide\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"}},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.boisestate.edu\/webguide\/#\/schema\/person\/026a5fb49b740daab0e72d8d199f88f2","name":"Shad","url":"https:\/\/www.boisestate.edu\/webguide\/author\/sjessen\/"}]}},"featured_image_url":"https:\/\/www.boisestate.edu\/webguide\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/16\/2023\/12\/captcha.png","author_name":"Shad","cats":["WordPress News"],"featured_caption":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.boisestate.edu\/webguide\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7760","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.boisestate.edu\/webguide\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.boisestate.edu\/webguide\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.boisestate.edu\/webguide\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/90"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.boisestate.edu\/webguide\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7760"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.boisestate.edu\/webguide\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7760\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10870,"href":"https:\/\/www.boisestate.edu\/webguide\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7760\/revisions\/10870"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.boisestate.edu\/webguide\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7762"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.boisestate.edu\/webguide\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7760"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.boisestate.edu\/webguide\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7760"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.boisestate.edu\/webguide\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7760"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}