Is there a way to block certain IP addresses or client IDs from setting up appointments with Amelia (and a way to detect them)? I've been getting fake bookings pretty often lately, like 3 times a week at least.
What a shame. I had to disable the On Site payment option because it was under attack from a malicious individual (or the competition). They were also inputting real data from other people, causing significant harm to our reputation (we are a psychology center). It's truly regrettable because opening this payment option increased our bookings through this channel by over 700%, as clients appreciate the gesture that the payment "can wait", that it isn't the primary concern when providing our service. I would be extremely grateful if something could be done about this (few people really know about VPNs, I believe). However, I honestly know little to nothing about implementing security.
Sorry to hear that. According to your message, i assume the "attacks" are not from the bots, but from the real people, so i guess enabling the option for reCAPTCHA is not doing much since they can verify the option easily.
In this case, the option for "on-site" payment is not doing much, since they can book "fake" appointments. Well, for now, other than reCAPTCHA, there is no other option that will just "block" the customers from making an appointment.
What comes to mind is to use the option "mandatory coupons" for example, but this means that you need to provide the coupons somehow to the end customer in order for them to make a booking, so i assume this is not an easy workaround.
Anyway, please feel free to search through our feature suggestion page, to see if someone may have already suggested this feature. If you can't see it, feel free to add your suggestion there, and as more people vote, the feature will move higher on the priority list.
You can certainly follow our changeLog page if you'd like, where we state any changes/new features/bug fixes during updates and our newsletter, so you're informed about new features, bug fixes, freebies, etc.
If you have any other questions, feel free to ask.
Hi
Is there a way to block certain IP addresses or client IDs from setting up appointments with Amelia (and a way to detect them)? I've been getting fake bookings pretty often lately, like 3 times a week at least.
Thank you!
Hello Rogelio,
Thanks for reaching out to us. Unfortunately, currently, there is no possibility to block certain IP addresses.
It's hard to make something that will detect the IP address each time since nowadays it's pretty easy to hide the IP address (using VPN or such)
The way to get rid of the fake bookings (assuming they are bots, not real people) is to use reCAPTCHA which is incorporated in Amelia.
Please, check out our documentation regarding this topic at this link - Google reCAPTCHA
Should you have any additional questions, feel free to ask.
Kind Regards,
Stefan Petrov
[email protected]
Rate my support
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Hi Stefan,
What a shame. I had to disable the On Site payment option because it was under attack from a malicious individual (or the competition). They were also inputting real data from other people, causing significant harm to our reputation (we are a psychology center). It's truly regrettable because opening this payment option increased our bookings through this channel by over 700%, as clients appreciate the gesture that the payment "can wait", that it isn't the primary concern when providing our service. I would be extremely grateful if something could be done about this (few people really know about VPNs, I believe). However, I honestly know little to nothing about implementing security.
Thank you very much.
Hello Rogelio,
Sorry to hear that. According to your message, i assume the "attacks" are not from the bots, but from the real people, so i guess enabling the option for reCAPTCHA is not doing much since they can verify the option easily.
In this case, the option for "on-site" payment is not doing much, since they can book "fake" appointments. Well, for now, other than reCAPTCHA, there is no other option that will just "block" the customers from making an appointment.
What comes to mind is to use the option "mandatory coupons" for example, but this means that you need to provide the coupons somehow to the end customer in order for them to make a booking, so i assume this is not an easy workaround.
Anyway, please feel free to search through our feature suggestion page, to see if someone may have already suggested this feature. If you can't see it, feel free to add your suggestion there, and as more people vote, the feature will move higher on the priority list.
You can certainly follow our changeLog page if you'd like, where we state any changes/new features/bug fixes during updates and our newsletter, so you're informed about new features, bug fixes, freebies, etc.
If you have any other questions, feel free to ask.
Kind Regards,
Stefan Petrov
[email protected]
Rate my support
Try our FREE mapping plugin! MapSVG - easy Google maps, interactive SVG maps, and floor plans, choropleth maps and much more - https://wordpress.org/plugins/mapsvg-lite-interactive-vector-maps/
wpDataTables: FAQ | Facebook | Twitter | Instagram | Front-end and back-end demo | Docs
Amelia: FAQ | Facebook | Twitter | Instagram | Amelia demo sites | Docs | Discord Community
You can try wpDataTables add-ons before purchasing on these sandbox sites:
Powerful Filters | Gravity Forms Integration for wpDataTables | Formidable Forms Integration for wpDataTables | Master-Detail Tables