Title: Spam
Last modified: September 17, 2026

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# Spam

 *  [studioblauw](https://wordpress.org/support/users/studioblauw/)
 * (@studioblauw)
 * [2 weeks, 1 day ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/spam-298/)
 * Hello,
   I am having a problem with spam submissions through Contact Form 7 on 
   a client’s website.Website: [https://www.hulsebosch.nl/](https://www.hulsebosch.nl/)
   We are receiving automated spam submissions through the Contact Form 7 form “
   Neem contact met me op”.I have already taken the following measures:– Google 
   reCAPTCHA v3 is active and connected through Contact Form 7 → Integration.– Honeypot
   is enabled through the CF7 Apps Honeypot App.– The Honeypot field is actually
   included in the contact form: [honeypot honeypot-588]– The contact form is working
   correctly for legitimate visitors.However, spam submissions are still getting
   through.
 * In Flamingo, this submission is shown as:
    - Status: “Not spam”
    - Submission result: mail_sent
    - It was submitted through the “Neem contact met me op” form.
 * I expected reCAPTCHA v3 and the Honeypot to detect this type of automated submission,
   but apparently they do not.
 * Could you please advise:
    1. Why might reCAPTCHA v3 be allowing these submissions through?
    2. Is there a way to see the reCAPTCHA v3 score for an individual submission in
       Flamingo?
    3. Is there a recommended way to increase the reCAPTCHA spam protection without
       blocking legitimate visitors?
    4. Are there any additional Contact Form 7 settings you recommend for this situation?
 * I would appreciate any advice on how to diagnose this properly before changing
   the reCAPTCHA threshold or adding additional plugins.
 * Thank you!
 * The page I need help with: _[[log in](https://login.wordpress.org/?redirect_to=https%3A%2F%2Fwordpress.org%2Fsupport%2Ftopic%2Fspam-298%2F%3Foutput_format%3Dmd&locale=en_US)
   to see the link]_

Viewing 4 replies - 1 through 4 (of 4 total)

 *  [heurilens](https://wordpress.org/support/users/heurilens/)
 * (@heurilens)
 * [2 weeks ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/spam-298/#post-19022856)
 * Hi,
 * I had this exact problem on a client’s CF7 form — reCAPTCHA v3 and Honeypot both“
   on”, spam still landing in Flamingo as “Not spam / mail_sent”. Two things I learned
   the hard way:
 * reCAPTCHA v3 doesn’t block anything by itself, it just scores (0–1) and CF7 only
   rejects below 0.5. The spam hitting us now comes from real headless browsers 
   on rotating IPs, so it scores high (0.7–0.9) and sails right through — and Honeypot
   only catches bots dumb enough to fill hidden fields. If you add a snippet to 
   log the v3 score into Flamingo, you’ll probably see the same thing, which means
   raising the threshold just starts blocking real people before it stops the spam.
 * What actually fixed it for me was routing the CF7 notification email through 
   [https://humainbox.com](https://humainbox.com) you literally just swap the recipient
   email in the form’s Mail tab for the address it gives you, no plugin. It reads
   the message content and holds the AI-generated junk instead of the “is this a
   bot” guessing game. It fails open (if anything breaks, the message still gets
   delivered, so you never lose a real enquiry), and it has a dry-run week where
   everything still comes through but it shows you what it would have held — so 
   you can check it against your real traffic before trusting it. Free tier covers
   a single form.
 * Been running it for a while now and the inbox is finally quiet. Worth a look 
   before you start tweaking thresholds.
 *  Plugin Author [Takayuki Miyoshi](https://wordpress.org/support/users/takayukister/)
 * (@takayukister)
 * [2 weeks ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/spam-298/#post-19022963)
 * Where on the site do you have the form having the issue?
 *  Thread Starter [studioblauw](https://wordpress.org/support/users/studioblauw/)
 * (@studioblauw)
 * [2 weeks ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/spam-298/#post-19023119)
 * [https://www.hulsebosch.nl/neem-contact-met-me-op/](https://www.hulsebosch.nl/neem-contact-met-me-op/)
 *  Plugin Author [Takayuki Miyoshi](https://wordpress.org/support/users/takayukister/)
 * (@takayukister)
 * [2 weeks ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/spam-298/#post-19023210)
 * What other plugins and theme do you use on the site?

Viewing 4 replies - 1 through 4 (of 4 total)

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 * 4 replies
 * 3 participants
 * Last reply from: [Takayuki Miyoshi](https://wordpress.org/support/users/takayukister/)
 * Last activity: [2 weeks ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/spam-298/#post-19023210)
 * Status: not resolved