SpambotCheck

Introduction

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 5.2.0
Maturity: Stable
System Requirements: Joomla 5.x, Joomla 6.x, PHP 8.1 to PHP 8.4
Date: October 11, 2025
New Feature
- PHP 8.8 Compatibility
- Joomla 6 Compatibility

Most Recent Release History:

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

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).

Write a review

Saved my sanity!

Sue Babcock (8).
Posted on 22 August 2012

I was getting spambot registrations at the rate of at least one per hour, and was having to continually monitor my site and delete them as soon as they appeared. I had recaptcha and opt-in email enabled for registration, but apparently they found a way past the controller. Anyway - I installed spambotcheck, and it is handling the spambots like a pro. I set it to registration only, and only check the IP. I've doubled checked several of the IP blocked, and they all have been from strange locations and are on spambot lists. Thanks for a great plugin!

Excellent stuff

Robert Saunders (1).
Posted on 21 February 2012

I don't have an enormous spambot problem, but it's enough to have to keep going into the admin area of the site to clear out spam registrations. I installed this plugin 24h ago, and the spam account attempts have stopped dead in their tracks (and I know real users can still register).

Easy to install, easy to configure and effective.

It is simply the best

digit (4).
Posted on 14 October 2011

The best extension of it's kind.

No more words needed to define it .

thankyou very much.

Great Thank you

Jo (23).
Posted on 10 October 2011

I was getting very frustrated with spammer registration and spammers adding ads and posts. Make sure you select the webs where you want the checks done as they are not put by default so you can choose which ones to check against. Gone down to zero spam!! My only wish is that I could sent a rude message to them when they register!!!

GOOD JOB!!

kyuichi (2).
Posted on 09 October 2011

this is a kind of plugin i wanted so far, it works with honeypot spam blocker and it has ip whitelist option coz last time i use plugin just for honeypot rules, even my IP got block, now i can use this white list feature and it was working excellent on my website!

excellent plugin

karmany (5).
Posted on 01 October 2011

Very very thanks for this tool.

It is very useful!

Easy to use and install. Anti-spam links are updated minute by minute.

From today: favorite

Great plugin

Meindert van Dijk (1).
Posted on 16 September 2011

Great tool to stop new spam users to my new site. Works excellent en is very easy to install. I will use it also for my other websites!

Does a great job.

MMMedia (2).
Posted on 17 August 2011

This extension does exactly what it says it does. Installation and configuration was quick and easy. Works really well.

runs great

Index (6).
Posted on 19 May 2011

have this extension to run since a few weeks on a very frequented board without any problems

not so good

Arthur Klisiewicz (19).
Posted on 22 January 2011

This extension works, with basic Joomla setup, it doesn't work however with CBuilder, and worst of all I was not able to get rid of it. When I disable it, it still shows up on my login page, and when I removed the extenstion my whoe site crashed. I'm not sure how the code is linked to the database and the Joomla core, but at this point it drives me nuts because I do not want it and I do not need it and I cannot remove it without consequences. It doesnt also offer any way for trsnslating the screen prompts to another language.

Owner's reply: I'm sad for your trouble but without further information about your Joomla configuration
I cannot decide, whether your problems really originate from this extension. You can contact us at contact@vi-solutions.de. I tested install, uninstall and disable, extensively and they work fine with Joomla 1.5.x (including many third party extensions).

When you install the plugin the following things happen.
- It adds a recordset in the jos_plugins table of your database (name = User - SpambotCheck).

- It adds the plugin-files spambotcheck.php and spambotcheck.xml and the plugin-folder SpambotCheck in plugins/user in the filesystem of your joomla-installation.

- It adds the language-files en-GB.plg_user_spambotcheck.ini to the folder administrator\language\en-GB and (de-DE.plg_user_spambotcheck.ini in administrator\language\de-DE in case you have german language installed).

- In case you enabled the plugin-parameter "Log Spambot to DB", there will be a table jos_rk_spambot_attempts in your database. This table will only be created, if there have already been any spambot attacks.

You can get rid of the plugin when you delete these files and the recordset in jos_plugins (not very elegant I know, but it should at least be a fast solution of your problem).

Plugin screen prompt is part of the language-files. It's the 'USER_LOGIN_SPAM_TXT'.

Regards, Aicha

Display #

SpambotCheck

Version:: 5.2.0
Developer:: Aicha Vack
Last updated:: Oct 14 2025
2 months ago
Date added:: Nov 18 2014
License:: GPLv2 or later
Type:: Free download
Includes:: c p
Compatibility:: J3 J4 J5 J6

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Uses Joomla! Update System

Demo Support Documentation Not available

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SpambotCheck

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