Introduction
In this article, you will discover the 3 Ways to Protect Google Forms from Spamming. Google Forms is a powerful tool that allows users to create surveys, quizzes, and feedback forms. However, one of the challenges that users often face is spamming. Spam submissions can not only skew the data but also waste valuable time and resources.
One day you woke up and feel excited that you got thousands responses for your Google forms survey. When you opened the spreadsheet, you're staggered. Most of responses are garbage spams.
You may be surprised that these malicious bot spam tools does exist in the market, such as this Google Form Submitter. (Thanks to Google, it ranks the first so it's easy for anyone to find and hack. 😂)
Some guys hope reCAPTCHA to be integrated with Google Forms. At least at the moment of writing this article, such integration is yet to come.
So how do you fight your forms from being spammed? We shows you 3 imperfect workarounds to reduce spams. Just like flu, we can get flu shots for a season protection, but we cannot be immune from spams forever.
3 Ways to Protect Google Forms from Spamming Methods:
Method 1. Password protection
First of all, we assume you published a naked google form on social medias or embedded in your own site. Anyone can discover the form link and submit answers without any restrictions.
The old school password strategy is easy to understand.
Pros
- Secure. If you have a long strong password, it's hard for spammers to break into.
- Simple to implement.
Cons
- Dilemma. If you don't share the password with the public link, no one can submit any answer. If you shared, it makes no senses.
Here is how it works.
- Open your Google form.
- Add a Short answer question, named Password.
- Click the icon
- Click Response validation.
- In the validation conditions, select Regular expression Matches
- Type in a long and strong password and an error message when respondents typed a wrong password.
- Turn on Required.
- Now try to submit a response with a wrong password. You will find you cannot. It tells you the password is incorrect.
Method 2. Limit only 1 response
This method is apparently the easiest since it's one click. This method will more or less slow down spammers and thus decrease the number of spams.
Pros
- Secure.
- Easiest to do.
Cons
- Limited to google users.
- May lower conversion rate for the extra step.
Here is how it works.
- Open your Google form.
- Click Settings.
- In the General tab, check the Limit to 1 response option.
- When you are done, any respondents without their google accounts logged in will see the following screen.
- When they want to re-submit another spam answer, they will be blocked.
Method 3. Simulated CAPTCHA
This method relies on a form addon to work, named Captcha for Forms. It adds an additional security layer without compromise of flexibility. The addon adds a dynamic captcha code challenge for respondents. Unlike the dilemma using password method above, the tool is able to expire the captcha frequently so no permanent spamming is possible.
Let's take a look how it works.
- Download and install Captcha for Forms. You may follow this full installation guide.
- Once you are done with installation, open Captcha for Forms from the menu.
- In the popped sidebar, turn on Enable Captcha.
- That's it, simple.
Now let's see the respondent's screen.
- It's difficult for bot to respond the captcha challenge but human.
Conclusion
Spamming can be a significant issue when using Google Forms, but by implementing these three methods, you can protect your forms and ensure the integrity of your data.
Anti-spam is an endless game. Please leave any comments if you have any questions.
