What are the best practices for handling form submissions in PHP to prevent spam without using captcha?

Spam bots often target form submissions, so it's important to implement measures to prevent spam without using captcha. One effective method is to include a hidden field in the form that should remain empty for humans but will likely be filled by bots. By checking if this hidden field is empty, we can filter out spam submissions. 

<?php

// Check if the hidden field is empty to prevent spam submissions
if (!empty($_POST['hidden_field'])) {
    // Handle the form submission
    // This code will only execute if the hidden field is empty
} else {
    // Log or handle the spam submission
    // This code will execute if the hidden field is filled
}

?>

Keywords

Form submissions PHP spam prevention validation honeypot

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