Title: Absolute Garbage
Last modified: October 3, 2017

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# Absolute Garbage

 *  [russell2170](https://wordpress.org/support/users/russell2170/)
 * (@russell2170)
 * [8 years, 8 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/absolute-garbage-8/)
 * I’ve never reviewed any plugin before, but I have to for this. I’ve made dozens
   of WordPress sites and only two have gotten hacked. Both of them are the ones
   I decided to use SpamShield for. This plugin is absolutely useless. Do yourself
   a favor, learn from my mistakes and use Wordfence instead.

Viewing 1 replies (of 1 total)

 *  Plugin Contributor [redsand](https://wordpress.org/support/users/redsand/)
 * (@redsand)
 * [8 years, 8 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/absolute-garbage-8/#post-9552350)
 * > I’ve never reviewed any plugin before, but I have to for this. I’ve made dozens
   > of WordPress sites and only two have gotten hacked. Both of them are the ones
   > I decided to use SpamShield for. This plugin is absolutely useless. Do yourself
   > a favor, learn from my mistakes and use Wordfence instead.
 * Hi [@russell2170](https://wordpress.org/support/users/russell2170/),
 * I’m sorry to hear that you had an issue, and that your sites were hacked. That
   is definitely not a fun situation. However your site would not have been hacked
   due to WP-SpamShield. It’s one of the most secure plugins available, and one 
   of the few that has never had a security vulnerability. We would never let one
   of our plugins compromise a site, as security is one of our highest priorities.
 * To be honest, the issues you’re reporting don’t seem to be related to WP-SpamShield
   at all. Perhaps you are confusing this one with a plugin that sounds similar?
 * If you’re referring to the recent fake plugin going around called “X-WP-SPAM-
   SHIELD-PRO”, that is a malware plugin that is 100% fake, and is designed by hackers
   as a backdoor. They made a plugin that sounded similar to WP-SpamShield in order
   to take advantage of our popularity. Please see this blog post explaining in 
   more detail: **[Malware Alert: Beware of Fake Plugin X-WP-SPAM-SHIELD-PRO](https://www.redsandmarketing.com/blog/malware-alert-x-wp-spam-shield-pro-fake-plugin/)**
 * **That malware has nothing to do with us, and was trying to leverage our good
   reputation.** The legit WP-SpamShield plugin, hosted here at WordPress.org, was
   never compromised, and is 100% secure.
 * Several major sites covered the issue as well and explain that it had nothing
   to do with us:
    - **[Fake Plugins, Fake Security | Sucuri](https://blog.sucuri.net/2017/09/fake-plugins-fake-security.html):**“
      The plugin name is fake and has nothing to do with well-known WP-SpamShield
      plugin in the official WordPress plugin repository.”
    - **[Hacker Hides Backdoor Inside Fake WordPress Security Plugin | Bleeping Computer](https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/security/hacker-hides-backdoor-inside-fake-wordpress-security-plugin/):**“
      The attacker was obviously trying to leverage on the reputation of a legitimate
      and highly popular WordPress plugin called ‘WP-SpamShield Anti-Spam,’ a popular
      anti-spam tool for self-hosted WordPress sites.”
    - **[Backdoor Masquerades as Popular WordPress Plugin | Security Week](http://www.securityweek.com/backdoor-masquerades-popular-wordpress-plugin):**“
      Dubbed X-WP-SPAM-SHIELD-PRO, the offending plugin was abusing the popularity
      of WP-SpamShield Anti-Spam, a tool designed to help WordPress site admins 
      fight a variety of spam.”
 * I hope you’re not confusing that fake malware plugin with us. I know that some
   people were getting the fake plugin confused with the real one, but we worked
   pretty hard to help clarify and prevent confusion.
 * Usually when users have issues, the way to handle things is to submit a support
   request before writing a review. Most issues can be fixed quickly. We have a 
   reputation for outstanding support.
 * Please get in touch with us through our [tech support URL](https://www.redsandmarketing.com/plugins/wp-spamshield/support/),
   and we’ll be happy to help you.
 * – Scott

Viewing 1 replies (of 1 total)

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 * 1 reply
 * 2 participants
 * Last reply from: [redsand](https://wordpress.org/support/users/redsand/)
 * Last activity: [8 years, 8 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/absolute-garbage-8/#post-9552350)