# Bot spam on wishlist add-to-wishlist requests

Market: WooCommerce

WooCommerce store owners using a wishlist plugin face bot floods of add-to-wishlist requests that overload servers and slow sites, and they want free protection such as requiring registration or CAPTCHA.

Source: https://idea.2folk.com/clusters/26

## Size

- Posts: 2
- Unique authors: 2
- Average severity: 3.5 of 5
- First seen: 2024-03-10. Last seen: 2026-04-01
- Trend: no posts in the last 56 days
- Authors who say they plan to switch: 1

## Who has the problem

- merchant \(2\)

Store size hints:
- plugin is bundled in their store template
- 5194 PHP requests from bots in 24 hours

## What they do today

- Working on replacing the plugin; may upgrade to Premium
- Suggests server-side ReCAPTCHA on the query string or disabling the plugin

## Tools named

Tools they complain about:
- YITH \(2\)

Alternatives they name:
- none found

## Price hints

- none found

## Evidence (top 2 by severity)

- [Free wishlist plugin lacks a require-registration option, leaving the store open to bot spam \(6,000 add-to-wishlist requests in a week\) that overloads the server; the fix is paywalled.](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/anyone-for-spam/) — 2024-03-10, wordpress, severity 4
- [Bots hitting the add\_to\_wishlist query string generated 5194 PHP requests in 24 hours and significantly slowed the site; author suggests reCAPTCHA or disabling the plugin.](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/automated-bots-target-query-string-add_to_wishlist/) — 2026-04-01, wordpress, severity 3

## Before you build

- This is a signal, not proof of a buyer. Talk to at least 5 of the authors first.
- Check each named tool for price, rating, and recent reviews on its own site and app store.
- Write down what a buyer would pay and what they pay now.