=== WP-SpamShield ===
Contributors: RedSandMediaGroup
Tags: anti-spam, antispam, blacklist, comment spam, comments, contact form, forms, gdpr, GDPR compliance, protection, register, registration, secure, security, spam
Requires at least: 4.4
Tested up to: 5.2
Requires PHP: 5.6
License: CodeCanyon
License URI: https://codecanyon.net/licenses

Powerful and user-friendly WordPress anti-spam plugin that prevents spam on blog comments, contact forms, registrations, and everything else.

== Description ==

An exceptionally powerful and user-friendly WordPress anti-spam plugin that *eliminates* comment spam, contact form spam, registration spam, trackback spam, pingback spam, and every other type of WordPress spam.

= The All-in-One Anti-Spam Plugin for WordPress - Without CAPTCHAs =
Leading edge WordPress spam protection, with *NO CAPTCHAs, challenge questions or other inconvenience to site visitors*. This plugin works silently in the background, and *simply makes WordPress spam disappear*.

**Supports: Contact Form 7, Gravity Forms, Ninja Forms, JetPack Contact Forms & Comments, BuddyPress, bbPress, WooCommerce, s2Member, WP-Members, Mailchimp, Fast Secure Contact Form, Formidable Forms, *all* WordPress forms, and *all* WordPress registration forms. *Automatically!***

= NEED HELP? =
**<a href="https://www.redsandmarketing.com/plugins/wp-spamshield-anti-spam/">Plugin Documentation</a>** | **<a href="https://www.redsandmarketing.com/plugins/wp-spamshield-anti-spam/troubleshooting-guide/">Troubleshooting Guide</a>** | **<a href="https://www.redsandmarketing.com/plugins/wp-spamshield-anti-spam/faqs/">FAQs</a>** | **<a href="https://www.redsandmarketing.com/plugins/wp-spamshield-anti-spam/support/">Support Requests</a>**

= How It Works =
Most of the spam hitting your site originates from bots, but quite a bit comes from humans too. This plugin works like a firewall to ensure that your commenters are in fact, human, and that those humans aren't spamming you.

= Two Layers of Spam Blocking =
There are two layers of leading edge anti-spam protection that work together to *block both automated (spambots) and human spam*:

1. The **JavaScript/Cookies Anti-Spam Layer**
2. The **Algorithmic Anti-Spam Layer**

The first anti-spam layer uses a dynamic combination of *JavaScript and cookies* to weed out the humans from spambots, preventing 100% of automated spam from ever getting to your site. Even if bot authors could engineer a way to break through the JavaScript/Cookies Anti-Spam Layer, the *Algorithmic Anti-Spam Layer* would still stop almost all of the spam that the JavaScript Layer blocks, and provides close to a fully redundant backstop. This JavaScript Anti-Spam Layer utilizes multiple randomly generated keys, and is algorithmically enhanced to ensure that spambots won't beat it. The powerful Algorithmic Anti-Spam Layer consists of over 100 advanced filters, and eliminates *trackback spam* and *most human spam as well*. And, it does all that without hindering legitimate comments, trackbacks, contact forms, or registrations.

= No More Wasted Time Sifting Through the Comment Spam Queue =
This type of solution works invisibly in the background, with no inconveniences. You won't have to waste valuable time sifting through a spam queue any more, because there won't be anything there.

WP-SpamShield is different from other anti-spam plugins in that it *BLOCKS* spam at the front door of your site and doesn't allow it into the WordPress database at all. Many other anti-spam plugins simply label a comment as spam, leaving you to sort through a spam queue, which wastes your valuable time. **WP-SpamShield will give you back your time!**

= Improves User-Friendliness of Your Website =
If you want to improve the user-friendliness of your site, this is *THE* anti-spam plugin you want. After all, why should your users have to prove they are human? Since your users won't be inconvenienced by outdated and frustrating anti-spam methods, you will provide a smoother, trouble- experience for your website users, which leads to improved readership, ad revenue, sales, or other types of conversion, and therefore greater success for your website.

= Improves Security =
Not allowing spam into the database improves security by potentially preventing SQL injection, DDoS, and XSS exploit attacks through automated spam comment submissions. WP-SpamShield fixes the security issues inherent to Pingbacks, and prevents Pingback-based DDoS attacks. As part of the Miscellaneous Form Spam Protection, the plugin protects against XML-RPC brute force amplification attacks. The plugin also has several other features that improve security, such as blocking certain potentially dangerous URLs in spam comment submissions, and limiting comment size to 15kb. (15kb of text is roughly the equivalent of 3 typed pages in Microsoft Word, single-spaced, so that's more than enough for even the longest of comments.) See <a href="https://www.redsandmarketing.com/blog/wp-spamshield-protected-users-from-wordpress-0-day-xss-exploit/">this blog post</a> for more info.

= Helps Improve Overall Website Performance =
The plugin helps keep your WordPress database slimmer and more efficient (keeping your site running faster in the long term) by not allowing the thousands upon thousands of spam comments into it, which could bloat the database and potentially corrupt it. Keeping your database lean is extremely important, because bloated databases result in much longer query times and increased server load, slowing down a site dramatically even for simple functions. If website performance is important to you, then you definitely want an anti-spam plugin like WP-SpamShield instead of a plugin that uses a spam queue. See <a href="https://www.redsandmarketing.com/plugins/wp-spamshield-anti-spam/faqs/?faqs=15#faqs_15">this FAQ</a> for more detailed info.

= ZERO False Positives =
It does all this with *ZERO false positives*, because of *the method used to block spam*. Notice we didn't say a "low false positive rate" or "very few false positives" - we said *ZERO false positives*. If a comment/contact form/registration gets blocked as spam, the user is given instant feedback and has a chance to correct their comment/contact form/registration/etc and try again, which means there cannot be false positives. This leads to fewer frustrated website visitors, and less work for you. **We are committed to keeping the promise of zero false positives.** (If you ever have questions/concerns about the results, don't hesitate to contact our tech support team.)

= 100% Pingback/Trackback Validation and Anti-Spam =
The trackback validation contains a filter that compares the client IP address of the incoming trackbacks and pingbacks against the IP address of the server where the link is supposedly coming from. If they don't come from the same server, then it is guaranteed spam, without fail. This alone eliminates more than 99.99% of trackback & pingback spam. Trackback spammers don't send spam out from the same server where their clients' websites reside. There are algorithmic anti-spam filters in place to ensure 100% trackback/pingback spam blocking. You can be confident that only legitimate trackbacks and pingbacks will get through.

= Includes a Spam- Contact Form, and Anti-Spam for Contact Form 7, Gravity Forms, Ninja Forms, JetPack Contact Forms, and Most Other Forms =
Includes drop-in spam- contact form, with easy one-click installation. Easy to use - no configuration necessary, but you can configure it if you like. (See <a href="https://www.redsandmarketing.com/plugins/wp-spamshield-anti-spam/installation-instructions/">Installation</a> for info.) WP-SpamShield also includes automatic anti-spam protection for Contact Form 7, Gravity Forms, Ninja Forms, JetPack Contact Forms, Fast Secure Contact Forms, Formidable Forms, and more. (You don't have to do a thing...just add your Contact Form 7, Gravity Forms, Ninja Forms, JetPack Contact Forms, or other forms to your site, and they will automatically be protected.) It will automatically protect *most forms* on your WordPress site from automated spam, even if they are not listed here.

= WordPress Registration Anti-Spam =
The plugin also includes powerful protection from user registration spam. Once you install WP-SpamShield, you don't have to worry about bots or spammy users signing up any more. (Note: This protects *all* registration forms, including the WordPress default registration form, and registration forms for bbPress, BuddyPress, WooCommerce, s2Member, WP-Members, and many more. See <a href="https://www.redsandmarketing.com/plugins/wp-spamshield-anti-spam/faqs/?faqs=13#faqs_13">this FAQ</a> for more info.

= Stops Email Harvesters =
The plugin has a feature to thwart email harvesting bots and keep them from scraping your site for email addresses. (Which helps reduce spam in your email inbox.) The plugin automatically obfuscates plain text email addresses and `mailto` links in your website content by encoding them into HTML entities (hexadecimal and decimal character codes that look like gibberish to harvesters, but render the email addresses perfectly in a browser). It protects email addresses on pages, posts, comments, excerpts, and text widgets.

= Why Not Just Use a CAPTCHA-Based Anti-Spam Method? =
The concept of using a CAPTCHA as an anti-spam solution in this modern day and age is flawed for several reasons:

1. It's an *outdated concept* that has far outlived its usefulness, and was originally developed before user-friendliness was a high priority.
2. It goes in the *exact opposite direction of user-friendly design principles*. Think about it. Users of your website have to type in numbers and letters obscured by squiggly lines and symbols, only to be told they are wrong several times, even after typing in the correct answer. This is proven to hurt website business and revenue because of the negative feelings it causes. *People simply don't like CAPTCHAs.*
3. It is not the user's responsibility to separate humans from bots, or to stop spam; it's *the web developer's responsibility*. Even if the CAPTCHA is simple, and all the user has to do is click a button, it is still annoying and unnecessary. It's one extra step that you are putting between your user and their end goal.
4. CAPTCHAs can be defeated. In fact, bots have been cracking CAPTCHAs since 2008. The only benefit of a CAPTCHA *was* that it was considered to be unbeatable by bots. That day is long past.
5. Why use a CAPTCHA when *there are better solutions* that don't inconvenience your website users?

= Optimized and Scalable - Won't Slow Down Your Site =
This plugin has an extremely low overhead and won't slow down your site, unlike some other anti-spam plugins. Each of the filters in the plugin have been benchmarked, and when processing comments for spam, the fastest filters are put at the front of the stack. Once a comment tests positive for spam, the testing process terminates and will not engage the remaining filters. Additionally, as mentioned above, by keeping spam out of the WordPress database altogether, WP-SpamShield helps keep your database slimmer and more efficient, which in turn helps keep your site running faster. This efficiency helps keep the server load down, and helps improve the overall performance of your site. WP-SpamShield is optimized to work well with *all* major caching plugins.

= Faster than the Cloud =
Speaking of scalability, WP-SpamShield can kill spam faster than any cloud-based anti-spam solution. Cloud-based anti-spam plugins are inherently slower at processing spam because they have to connect to an external server to check the spam status, which in turn *will increase your site's server load*. With WP-SpamShield, all anti-spam processing happens directly on your website's server, with lightning speed.

= Responsive and Helpful Tech Support =
If you have any issues with the plugin, we are here to help. Simply submit a support request at the <a href="https://www.redsandmarketing.com/plugins/wp-spamshield-anti-spam/support/">WP-SpamShield Support Page</a>, and we'll help you diagnose and fix the issue quickly. Don't take our word for it though - look through our plugin ratings/reviews and notice the high percentage of resolved support threads and satisfied users.

= Additional Features =
Please visit the plugin documentation for information on <a href="https://www.redsandmarketing.com/plugins/wp-spamshield-anti-spam/#additional_features">additional features</a>.

= Languages Available =

* English
* Dutch (nl_NL)
* French (fr_FR)
* German (de_DE)
* Indonesian (id_ID)
* Italian (it_IT)
* Serbian (sr_RS)
* Swedish (sv_SE)

If you would like to help translate, please <a href="https://www.redsandmarketing.com/contact/">get in touch with us</a>.

= Minimum Requirements =

Please see the plugin documentation's <a href="https://www.redsandmarketing.com/plugins/wp-spamshield-anti-spam/?wpss=requirements#minimum_requirements_server_requirements">minimum requirements section</a> for information.

To find web hosts that meet and exceed the requirements, <a href="https://www.redsandmarketing.com/recommended-web-hosts/">see our list of recommended web hosts</a>.

== Installation ==

= Installation Instructions =

Please visit the plugin documentation for <a href="https://www.redsandmarketing.com/plugins/wp-spamshield-anti-spam/installation-instructions/">installation instructions</a>.

= Displaying Stats on Your Blog =
Please visit the plugin documentation for information on <a href="https://www.redsandmarketing.com/plugins/wp-spamshield-anti-spam/displaying-stats/">widgets and displaying blocked spam stats</a>.

= Adding a Contact Form to Your Site =
Please visit the plugin documentation for information on <a href="https://www.redsandmarketing.com/plugins/wp-spamshield-anti-spam/installing-contact-form/">contact form installation and use</a>.

= Configuration Information =

Please visit the plugin documentation for detailed <a href="https://www.redsandmarketing.com/plugins/wp-spamshield-anti-spam/configuration-information/">configuration information</a>.

== Frequently Asked Questions ==

We've put together a list of <a href="https://www.redsandmarketing.com/plugins/wp-spamshield-anti-spam/faqs/">Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)</a> that will answer many of the questions out there. If you have an issue, please read these first.

== Screenshots ==

1. WP-SpamShield Settings page
2. Blocked spam stats on the main Dashboard page
3. The WordPress spam queue after installing WP-SpamShield. Empty.
4. Widget - End Blog Spam
5. Widget - WP-SpamShield Counter - Custom: Style 1, Base Color 17
8. Widget - WP-SpamShield Counter - Custom: Style 1, Base Color 6
6. Widget - WP-SpamShield Counter - Custom: Style 2, Base Color 14
7. Widget - WP-SpamShield Counter - Custom: Style 2, Base Color 3
9. Widget - WP-SpamShield Counter - Graphic: Style 3
10. Widget - WP-SpamShield Counter - Graphic: Style 9

== Changelog ==

= 1.9.41 =
*released 05/27/19*

* Fixed an HTML formatting issue affecting the plugin settings page.
* Made various code enhancements and improvements.
* Tested and confirmed compatibility with WordPress 5.2 branch.
* Maintenance: Updated existing spam filters to combat evolving/emerging threats.

= 1.9.40 =
*released 04/18/19*

* Made various code enhancements and improvements.
* Improved some of the filters in the anti-spam algorithm.
* Maintenance: Updated existing spam filters to combat evolving/emerging threats.

= 1.9.39 =
*released 04/05/19*

* Made various code enhancements and improvements.
* Improved some of the filters in the anti-spam algorithm.
* Maintenance: Updated existing spam filters to combat evolving/emerging threats.

= 1.9.38 =
*released 04/01/19*

* Made various code enhancements and improvements.
* Improved some of the filters in the anti-spam algorithm.
* Maintenance: Updated existing spam filters to combat evolving/emerging threats.

= 1.9.37 =
*released 03/22/19*

* Increased <a href="https://www.redsandmarketing.com/plugins/wp-spamshield-anti-spam/#minimum_requirements_server_requirements">minimum required PHP version</a> to 5.6. (Recommended: PHP 7.0 or higher)  We are no longer supporting PHP versions lower than 5.6. If you are still using PHP 5.5 or lower on your server, it's <em>extremely important</em> that you upgrade your PHP version as soon as possible. For info on upgrading, see our guide: <a href="https://www.redsandmarketing.com/wordpress-guides/how-to-upgrade-php-version/">How to Update Your Site's PHP Version</a>.
* Increased <a href="https://www.redsandmarketing.com/plugins/wp-spamshield-anti-spam/#minimum_requirements_server_requirements">minimum required WordPress version</a> to 4.4. (Recommended: WordPress 4.8 or higher) It's extremely important that website owners keep website software updated for security, functionality, and website performance.
* Made various minor code enhancements and improvements.
* Tested and confirmed compatibility with WordPress 5.1 branch.
* Maintenance: Updated existing spam filters to combat evolving/emerging threats.

= 1.9.36 =
*released 11/22/18*

* Fixed bug in IDN support functionality (added in 1.9.35) that caused a PHP fatal error upon activation. This issue affected websites hosted with providers that have the PHP 'intl' extension disabled. (Recommended best practice: Enable 'intl' extension by default.) If your web host does not enable this extension, you can manually enable it by modifying your site config settings in php.ini.

= 1.9.35 =
*released 11/20/18*

* Increased <a href="https://www.redsandmarketing.com/plugins/wp-spamshield-anti-spam/#minimum_requirements_server_requirements">minimum required PHP version</a> to 5.5. (Recommended: PHP 7.0 or higher) We are no longer supporting PHP 5.4, and are in the process of phasing out support for PHP versions lower than 5.6. If you are still using PHP 5.5 or lower on your server, it's extremely important that you upgrade your PHP version as soon as possible. For info on upgrading, see our guide: <a href="https://www.redsandmarketing.com/wordpress-guides/how-to-upgrade-php-version/">How to Update Your Site's PHP Version</a>.
* Increased <a href="https://www.redsandmarketing.com/plugins/wp-spamshield-anti-spam/#minimum_requirements_server_requirements">minimum required WordPress version</a> to 4.2. (Recommended: WordPress 4.8 or higher) It's extremely important that website owners keep website software updated for security, functionality, and website performance.
* Compatibility fix for brotli compression implementation/changes in Safari 11.1.1+.
* Added improvements for WooCommerce anti-spam protection, specifically: product reviews and user registrations.
* Added improved support for Mollie payment gateways and webhooks in WooCommerce.
* Made various code enhancements and improvements, including some performance and speed optimization enhancements.
* Improved some of the filters in the anti-spam algorithm.
* Maintenance: Updated existing spam filters to combat evolving/emerging threats.

= 1.9.34 =
*released 05/31/18*

* Made various code enhancements and improvements.
* Improved some of the filters in the anti-spam algorithm.
* Maintenance: Updated existing spam filters.

= 1.9.33 =
*released 05/21/18*

* Added new spam filters to combat evolving/emerging threats.
* Fixed a bug that caused blog comments to be incorrectly blocked.
* Made various code enhancements and improvements.
* Improved some of the filters in the anti-spam algorithm.
* Maintenance: Updated existing spam filters.

= 1.9.32 =
*released 04/25/18*

* Fixed bug that caused a conflict between PHP 7.1+ and WooCommerce.
* Maintenance: Updated existing spam filters.

= 1.9.31 =
*released 04/23/18*

* Made various code enhancements and improvements.
* Added email domain blocking to the Enhanced Comment Blacklist functionality. See the Configuration Information page for usage.
* Added new spam filters to the algorithm.
* Improved some of the filters in the anti-spam algorithm.
* Maintenance: Updated existing spam filters.

= 1.9.30 =
*released 12/11/17*

* Made various code enhancements and improvements.
* Tested and confirmed compatibility with WordPress 4.9 branch.
* Improved some of the filters in the anti-spam algorithm.
* Maintenance: Updated existing spam filters.
* Upgraded to a premium plugin and launched on Envato/CodeCanyon.

= Changelog =
For a complete list of changes to the plugin, view the <a href="https://www.redsandmarketing.com/plugins/wp-spamshield-anti-spam/changelog/">Changelog</a>.

== Upgrade Notice ==
= 1.9.41 =

* Fixed an HTML formatting issue on the plugin settings page, made various code enhancements and improvements, and updated spam filters. Please see <a href="https://www.redsandmarketing.com/plugins/wp-spamshield-anti-spam/changelog/">Changelog</a> for details.

