---
schema_version: "1"
id: 2714b4e151ded39b1ee2b245c64446742e566542bd40508547d2a5feed376755
title: Bot Protection and Forms
collection: admin
version: current
locale: en-us
portal_url: https://docs.salesforce.com/admin/current/en-us/mktg/264-0-0/pardot_forms_bot_protection.md
canonical_url: https://help.salesforce.com/s/articleView?id=mktg.pardot_forms_bot_protection.htm&release=264.0.0&type=5
source_site: help.salesforce.com
content_type: documentation
content_hash: dfd85fcbe3bc49ea20574dfb452ab3436fe373867d2f238832f91dc655188ce1
description: Online forms are easy targets for bots and can fill your database with spam prospects. Choose from built-in and optional solutions for bot protection. You can turn on reCAPTCHA for marketing forms and landing pages to limit the number of spam submissions, but its protection doesn’t eliminate all spam.
products:
  - Marketing
  - Marketing Cloud Account Engagement
release: "264"
---
# Bot Protection and Forms

Online forms are easy targets for bots and can fill your database with spam prospects. Choose from built-in and optional solutions for bot protection. You can turn on reCAPTCHA for marketing forms and landing pages to limit the number of spam submissions, but its protection doesn’t eliminate all spam.

### Required Editions

<table class="slds-table slds-table_bordered slds-max-medium-table_stacked slds-m-bottom_small edition"><colgroup><col></colgroup><tbody><tr class=""><td class="slds-cell-wrap" style="vertical-align:top;">Available in: <span>All Account Engagement Editions</span></td></tr></tbody></table>

## Honeypot Technique

All hosted forms have built-in bot protection by using a negative CAPTCHA called a honeypot. It’s an invisible field that your prospects can’t see. Bots do see this field, and they complete it. When the honeypot field has a value, the form submission is rejected.

## Conditional CAPTCHA

Sophisticated bots can bypass a honeypot, so marketing forms also use a conditional CAPTCHA. Account Engagement pings a database of IP addresses known for spam when a visitor views a marketing form or landing page. Visitors coming from an IP known for spam see a CAPTCHA. If the IP address is considered safe, the form appears without a CAPTCHA. The conditional CAPTCHA stops bots, but humans don’t see it, and your conversion rates don’t suffer.

## reCAPTCHA

If you want more bot protection, you can add a reCAPTCHA for all prospects. Enable it on the Advanced tab of the Look and Feel step in the form wizard.

![Note](https://sf-zdocs-cdn-prod.zoominsoftware.com/tdta-mktg-pardot-264-0-0-production-enus/5fef4d4f-9a34-45c6-8cd3-e3200b9eeba8/images/icon_note.png)

Note reCAPTCHA appears by default when we detect an unusual number of form submissions within a certain time frame.