Title: Scrubwell – Hides Emails & Phone Numbers in Comments
Author: jericswaim
Published: <strong>October 11, 2026</strong>
Last modified: October 11, 2026

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# Scrubwell – Hides Emails & Phone Numbers in Comments

 By [jericswaim](https://profiles.wordpress.org/jericswaim/)

[Download](https://downloads.wordpress.org/plugin/scrubwell.1.1.0.zip)

 * [Details](https://wordpress.org/plugins/scrubwell/#description)
 * [Reviews](https://wordpress.org/plugins/scrubwell/#reviews)
 *  [Installation](https://wordpress.org/plugins/scrubwell/#installation)
 * [Development](https://wordpress.org/plugins/scrubwell/#developers)

 [Support](https://wordpress.org/support/plugin/scrubwell/)

## Description

Visitors paste private details into comment boxes all the time: their own phone 
number, a customer’s email, worse. Once it’s saved, it’s in your database, your 
backups and your search results, and it’s your problem.

Scrubwell removes that information before it is saved.

 * **Two layers.** Visitors see `[REDACTED PHONE]` appear as they type, so they 
   know what happened. Your server removes it again when the comment arrives, so
   bots and visitors with JavaScript turned off are covered too.
 * **Leaves the right fields alone.** The comment form’s own Name, Email and Website
   fields are never touched.
 * **No outside service.** Everything runs on your site and in the visitor’s browser.
   Nothing is sent anywhere.
 * **Counts what it catches.** See how many items were removed under Settings  Scrubwell.

Free version removes:

 * Email addresses
 * US and Canadian phone numbers

#### Scrubwell Pro

Pro adds credit and debit card numbers (checked with the card-number checksum, so
order numbers aren’t caught), Social Security numbers, bank routing and account 
numbers, and US street addresses. It also adds a “Send anyway” button for the types
you allow (with a log), a “never remove” list, a per-post off switch, a choice of
roles to skip, and protection for Contact Form 7 messages, bbPress and BuddyPress
posts and private messages, and WooCommerce order notes.

## Installation

 1. Upload the plugin and activate it.
 2. Go to Settings  Scrubwell to choose what to remove.

## FAQ

### Will it remove the email a commenter types into the Email field?

No. Only the comment text is filtered.

### Are administrators filtered?

Not by default. Turn off “Don’t filter site administrators” if you want them filtered
too.

### Can I turn it off for one field?

Adding `data-scrubwell="off"` to a field (or a wrapper around it) turns off the 
as-you-type removal in the browser for that field. The server still removes private
info when the text arrives, because it can’t trust markup sent by a visitor’s browser.

To turn off the server side too, use the `scrubwell_skip` filter in a small plugin
or your theme’s functions.php. For example, to skip comments on one post:

    ```
    add_filter( 'scrubwell_skip', function ( $skip, $context ) { return $skip || 42 === $context['post_id']; }, 10, 2 );
    ```

### Can I keep my own phone number or email domain?

Yes, with the `scrubwell_allowlist` filter. Return a list of values to keep, such
as `(214) 555-0100` or `@example.com` (every address at that domain). Scrubwell 
Pro adds a settings box for this.

## Reviews

There are no reviews for this plugin.

## Contributors & Developers

“Scrubwell – Hides Emails & Phone Numbers in Comments” is open source software. 
The following people have contributed to this plugin.

Contributors

 *   [ jericswaim ](https://profiles.wordpress.org/jericswaim/)

[Translate “Scrubwell – Hides Emails & Phone Numbers in Comments” into your language.](https://translate.wordpress.org/projects/wp-plugins/scrubwell)

### Interested in development?

[Browse the code](https://plugins.trac.wordpress.org/browser/scrubwell/), check 
out the [SVN repository](https://plugins.svn.wordpress.org/scrubwell/), or subscribe
to the [development log](https://plugins.trac.wordpress.org/log/scrubwell/) by [RSS](https://plugins.trac.wordpress.org/log/scrubwell/?limit=100&mode=stop_on_copy&format=rss).

## Changelog

#### 1.1.0

 * New: `scrubwell_skip`, `scrubwell_allowlist`, `scrubwell_hits` and `scrubwell_exempt_user`
   filters and the `scrubwell_redacted` action, for developers and Scrubwell Pro.
 * Fixed: the FAQ now explains that `data-scrubwell="off"` only affects the browser
   layer.
 * New: “Upgrade to Pro” link on the settings page.

#### 1.0.0

 * First release.

## Meta

 *  Version **1.1.0**
 *  Last updated **2 days ago**
 *  Active installations **Fewer than 10**
 *  WordPress version ** 6.0 or higher **
 *  Tested up to **7.1.3**
 *  PHP version ** 7.4 or higher **
 * Tags
 * [comments](https://wordpress.org/plugins/tags/comments/)[GDPR](https://wordpress.org/plugins/tags/gdpr/)
   [PII](https://wordpress.org/plugins/tags/pii/)[privacy](https://wordpress.org/plugins/tags/privacy/)
   [redaction](https://wordpress.org/plugins/tags/redaction/)
 *  [Advanced View](https://wordpress.org/plugins/scrubwell/advanced/)

## Ratings

No reviews have been submitted yet.

[Your review](https://wordpress.org/support/plugin/scrubwell/reviews/#new-post)

[See all reviews](https://wordpress.org/support/plugin/scrubwell/reviews/)

## Contributors

 *   [ jericswaim ](https://profiles.wordpress.org/jericswaim/)

## Support

Got something to say? Need help?

 [View support forum](https://wordpress.org/support/plugin/scrubwell/)