Howdy,
Thanks for the detailed info!
Why those submissions were flagged
The emails you mentioned ([email protected] and [email protected]) are almost certainly being correctly flagged. yopmail.com is a well-known disposable email provider, and [email protected] is a common placeholder address. Both patterns are overwhelmingly associated with spam across millions of sites. If these were your own test submissions, that explains it. Akismet evaluates each submission on its own merits and can’t distinguish your test data from a spammer’s fake data.
How Akismet evaluates submissions
Akismet’s classification runs server-side (not in the plugin), and it’s constantly learning from data across millions of sites. It looks at multiple signals holistically: email reputation, IP history, content, and patterns from known spam networks.
For future testing, you can use Akismet’s built-in test trigger instead of disposable emails: submit a form entry with the name, email, or message body set to akismet-guaranteed-spam (e.g., [email protected]). This will reliably get flagged so you can confirm Akismet is working without affecting your real data.
Gravity Forms + Akismet configuration
A few things to be aware of:
- The Akismet add-on for Gravity Forms is now required for the integration to work. Akismet is configured per-form within Gravity Forms, so make sure it’s enabled and properly mapped on each form you want protected. More details in Gravity Forms’ Akismet docs: https://docs.gravityforms.com/category/add-ons-gravity-forms/akismet-add-on/
- Reporting false positives is key. You’ve already done the right thing by marking legitimate submissions as “Not Spam” in Gravity Forms. That feedback goes directly back to Akismet and improves accuracy for your site and globally. You may need to keep doing this over a few days as Akismet continuously learns from the feedback.
- Keep the Akismet plugin up to date. The spam-checking logic lives on our servers, but staying current gets you the latest integration improvements.
For more on how Akismet works with contact forms: https://akismet.com/support/getting-started/using-akismet-with-your-contact-forms/
In short: The flagged submissions look correctly identified based on the email addresses used. If you’re seeing real customer submissions incorrectly flagged, let us know and we’ll investigate.
