Form Armor helps non-profits stop Spam through Web contact forms

Plano, Texas — Webmasters at non-profit agencies have a new tool to help manage spam email submitted through Web site forms. Form Armor, a subscription-based Web service that prevents spam and other abusive entries through Web site contact forms, announced it will make its service available at no charge to non-profit agencies in the U.S.

In 2006 an estimated 40% of all emails sent qualified as spam or unsolicited email, at a cost of more than $8.9 billion to corporations and organizations. For Web site managers and other professionals, a new variety of spam has arisen in recent years, with spam submitted through Web site forms either by automated software or human-generated submissions.

Contact forms and other forms are an essential part of most Web sites. Web forms make gathering information and registering users fast and easy for Web site visitors, and can streamline the time required to respond to requests. Spam form submissions can create a huge drain in productivity for employees charged with responding to Web inquiries. Additionally, abusive and malicious entries through Web forms can create significant security issues for IT departments and networks.

"Web forms offer a great benefit to Web site owners and visitors, but the burden of dealing with spam entries and other unwanted submissions can be huge for any company," said Larissa Church of Idea Catchers Group, LLC, the development firm behind Form Armor. "We hope that by making Form Armor available to non-profits, we can provide some relief to staff and IT managers that are already stretched thin."

Church knows from experience. Prior to founding Idea Catchers in 1999, she spent ten years in the non-profit industry in fundraising and development roles. Now she hopes Form Armor can minimize some of staff time required to manage an organization's Web site, and help prevent security issues and downtime caused by malicious submissions.

In an attempt to limit automated spam submissions, many corporate and non-profit Web sites have resorted to image matching or word verification tests that a visitor must pass before submitting a form. Such tests place the burden on legitimate Web site visitors, instead of the offenders, and often create accessibility problems for disabled users.

Form Armor protects Web site forms without requiring any effort from Web site visitors, and only nominal work from Web designers and IT departments. No image tests are required, and no scripts or plug-ins need to be installed on the Web site. The service works with any browser and server platform and can be activated on any Web contact form within 24 hours. The estimated setup time for Web designers is less than 5 minutes per form.

Because the service does not require JavaScript programming, Form Armor can also improve a site's accessibility for visitors with limited vision or those who use screen readers to access the Internet.

Form Armor subscriptions are available at no charge to any 501(c)3 non-profit organization in the United States. Interested agencies should call 1-866-433-2638 or send an email to nonprofits@formarmor.com.

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Form Armor is a subscription-based Web service that prevents spam and other abusive content submissions through Web site contact forms and registration forms. Form Armor uses a proprietary method of anti-spam technology developed by Idea Catchers Group, LLC – a Web site and application development company based in Plano, Texas. A 30-day free trial of the service is available and subscriptions begin at $9 per month. For more information, visit http://www.formarmor.com.