Prevent Spam Account Registration

We went through the same problem, the front maxlength limitation was bypassed easily (try it yourself by removing the maximum-length-25 class from html).

So here are what I found :

• Solution 1 : Blocking via IP : each account subscription use a different IP from Colombia to Vietnam...

• Solution 2: Blocking via User agent : it can be faked... It works if you want to limit crawlers blots.

• Solution 3: Use HoneyPot : may works, but if the bot already focused you, I think it surely knows which fields to post (see: https://magento.stackexchange.com/a/104261/50635)

• Solution 4: Captcha (Magento or Google) : may works but some people said it was overpassed

• Solution 5: Edit email template and Add the confirmation email :

  • Removing input data such as {{var customer.name}}, {{var customer.firstname}} from the /app/locale/[locale]/template/email/account_new.html template can prevent a bit being marked as spam.
  • Add the email confirmation : System > Configuration > Customer Configuration > Require Emails Confirmation > Yes

• Solution 6: Update fields limitation rules from database : directly in the customer_eav_attribute table, update rows with attribute_id=5 [firstname] and attribute_id=7 [lastname] and replace 255 by 25 :

  • a:2:{s:15:"max_text_length";i:255;s:15:"min_text_length";i:1;}
  • by : a:2:{s:15:"max_text_length";i:25;s:15:"min_text_length";i:1;}

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Solution 6 seems the fastest and the more effective way to prevent spambots, as they are using more than 25 characters.

Since then, NO MORE FAKE ACCOUNT were created! Problem solved.

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If they try with less, it will at least restrict them in their phishing attempt.

You can check how many users already have a firstname or lastname over 25 characters, in our case, really minor :

SELECT ce.entity_id, ce.email, cev2.value AS firstname, cev3.value AS lastname
FROM customer_entity ce
-- first name
INNER JOIN customer_entity_varchar cev2 ON (ce.entity_id = cev2.entity_id AND cev2.attribute_id = 5)
-- last name
INNER JOIN customer_entity_varchar cev3 ON (ce.entity_id = cev3.entity_id AND cev3.attribute_id = 7)
WHERE CHAR_LENGTH(cev2.value)>25 or CHAR_LENGTH(cev3.value)>25

For more information why these fake accounts are registered, read here : https://magento.stackexchange.com/a/240710/50635