What best practices should be followed when integrating spam prevention measures in PHP forms?

Spam prevention measures should be implemented in PHP forms to prevent automated bots from submitting spam content. One common way to do this is by using CAPTCHA verification to ensure that the form is being filled out by a human user. Additionally, implementing form validation to check for suspicious patterns or keywords can help filter out spam submissions. 

// Example code snippet implementing CAPTCHA verification in PHP form
session_start();

if ($_SERVER["REQUEST_METHOD"] == "POST") {
    // Verify CAPTCHA code
    if ($_POST["captcha"] != $_SESSION["captcha_code"]) {
        echo "CAPTCHA verification failed. Please try again.";
    } else {
        // Process form submission
        // Additional form validation can be added here
    }
}

// Generate random CAPTCHA code and store it in session
$captcha_code = rand(1000, 9999);
$_SESSION["captcha_code"] = $captcha_code;

// Display CAPTCHA image in the form
echo '<img src="captcha_image.php" alt="CAPTCHA Image">';
echo '<input type="text" name="captcha" placeholder="Enter CAPTCHA code">';

Keywords

CAPTCHA honeypot CSRF token input validation IP blacklisting

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