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School of Medicine IT

Reducing Spam in Gravity Forms

Some websites using Gravity Forms may experience spam submissions from bots. Below are some recommended steps to help reduce and manage unwanted submissions.

1. Enable the Anti-Spam Honeypot

Gravity Forms includes a built-in honeypot feature that adds a hidden field to your form. Bots often complete this field, which flags the submission as spam.

  • Go to Forms > [Your Form] > Settings > Form Settings.
  • Enable the Anti-spam honeypot.
  • Then select Create an entry and mark it as spam to retain flagged entries for review.

2. Add CAPTCHA Protection

Adding a CAPTCHA field helps prevent automated bots from submitting forms.

  • Edit your form and add a CAPTCHA field (found under Advanced Fields).
  • Place the CAPTCHA near the Submit button for optimal visibility.

Screenshot of a gravity form with the Captcha field highlighted.

3. Restrict Access to UNC Users (If Applicable)

If your form is intended for internal use, consider limiting access to UNC-affiliated users:

  • We can help you enable Onyen authentication to limit access to UNC-affiliated users only.

4. Review the Spam Tab in Gravity Forms

Gravity Forms automatically filters suspected spam entries.

  • Go to Forms > [Your Form] > Entries > Spam.
  • Review entries periodically to ensure no valid submissions were flagged incorrectly.

5. Monitor Your Outlook Inbox

Occasionally, valid form submissions may be routed to your Junk or Spam folder in Outlook.

  • Check your spam folder regularly, especially if you are expecting submissions.
  • You may want to create a rule in Outlook to whitelist messages from your form.

Need Help?

If you’d like assistance applying any of the steps above or want help reviewing your form configuration, please contact the Web Team.