Regex or preg_match for stopping spam

yorktown

I have someone that is placing data spam in my email subscription as the following pattern:

FirstnameLastName##@gmail.com
AnothernameAnotherName##@gmail.com
DifferentnameAnotherName##@gmail.com

where the ## is a random number (ex: 42)

So, some examples would be:

GeorgeWashington67 @ gmail.com
ThomasJefferson23 @ gmail.com
etc

I need to use either Regex or PregMatch in my filter to identify the ##@gmail.com to prevent it from being entered into the database.

I appreciate help here because it involves this plus an array to cover 0-9,0-9 or 00-99

Thanks

Marc

yorktown

I would appreciate some help. Its pretty simple for someone who knows PHP really well.

People are entering false emails on a form. The PHP variable for the email they submit is '$submit_by'

Before it is entered into the MYSQL database, I need PHP to qualify it does not have a ## @ gmail.com at the end of it.

is a number from 00 to 99

I was looking through arrays, regex and preg_match.

Thee fact that the number entered (##) could be anywhere from 00 to 99,
combined with the fact that it the query will look at the end of the field threw me off.

$submit_by='phpbuilder @ gmail.com' would not get flagged
$submit_by='phpbuilder1 @ gmail.com' would not get flagged
$submit_by='randomuser44 @ phpbuilder.com' would not get flagged

but.....

$submit_by='phpbuilder67 @ gmail.com' would get flagged.

Any help here.....please!

Marc

bpat1434

You can't do that. Reason being is that I have a gmail account (a few actually) and all of them are in the format of {name}{number}@gmail.com. So if you put this in place, I'd be filtered out 🙁

The best thing to do is to actually put in a verification track. Either send an email with a verification code, or require your users to register. But simply blocking all users with a {name}{number}@gmail.com address is going to block a lot of users.

Anyway, a regex would be something like:

~[a-zA-Z]+[0-9]{1,2}@gmail\.com~

But that would block lots of email addresses. I'd suggest following my above recommendations. Implement a login system, or require an email validation.

yorktown

I looked at most of our emails that people submit. Most are corporate emails. Very few are 2 digit @ gmail.com addresses. So while I may miss a few....I would rather stop the hordes of spam that are coming in now.

Any help here.. thanks.

Plus, your [1,2] I don't understand....is any thing from 00 to 99, not 01 to 92

Marc

NogDog

if(preg_match('/.+\d\d@gmail.com/i', $submit_by))

Of course, once that person gets regjected, it will be a trivial change to his script to generate a different email address pattern, and then there will be the possibility of rejecting valid users who happen to have an email address that matches this pattern.

yorktown

It works ! Thanks!!

laserlight

Remember to mark this thread as resolved (if it is*) using the thread tools.

and it may not be, for the reason outlined: having your valid email address blocked for no good reason is very, very irritating.