diff --git a/Gemfile b/Gemfile
index c41388f49a..3333d9055c 100644
--- a/Gemfile
+++ b/Gemfile
@@ -70,6 +70,7 @@ group :test, :development do
   gem 'letter_opener'
   gem 'timecop'
   gem 'poltergeist'
+  gem 'webmock'
 end
 
 group :chili do
diff --git a/Gemfile.lock b/Gemfile.lock
index 011644699b..62f033c8b2 100644
--- a/Gemfile.lock
+++ b/Gemfile.lock
@@ -223,6 +223,8 @@ GEM
       sass (~> 3.1)
     compass-rails (1.0.3)
       compass (>= 0.12.2, < 0.14)
+    crack (0.4.1)
+      safe_yaml (~> 0.9.0)
     database_cleaner (0.7.1)
     db2fog (0.8.0)
       activerecord (~> 3.0)
@@ -388,6 +390,7 @@ GEM
       rspec-mocks (~> 2.14.0)
     ruby-hmac (0.4.0)
     rubyzip (0.9.9)
+    safe_yaml (0.9.5)
     sass (3.2.10)
     sass-rails (3.2.6)
       railties (~> 3.2.0)
@@ -445,6 +448,9 @@ GEM
       railties (>= 3.0)
     warden (1.2.1)
       rack (>= 1.0)
+    webmock (1.13.0)
+      addressable (>= 2.2.7)
+      crack (>= 0.3.2)
     websocket (1.0.7)
     xpath (1.0.0)
       nokogiri (~> 1.3)
@@ -505,4 +511,5 @@ DEPENDENCIES
   turn (~> 0.8.3)
   uglifier (>= 1.0.3)
   unicorn
+  webmock
   zurb-foundation!
diff --git a/spec/spec_helper.rb b/spec/spec_helper.rb
index 7e200e2108..6a58af1a34 100644
--- a/spec/spec_helper.rb
+++ b/spec/spec_helper.rb
@@ -13,6 +13,11 @@ require 'rspec/rails'
 require 'capybara'
 require 'database_cleaner'
 
+# Allow connections to phantomjs/selenium whilst raising errors
+# when connecting to external sites
+require 'webmock/rspec'
+WebMock.disable_net_connect!(:allow_localhost => true)
+
 # Requires supporting ruby files with custom matchers and macros, etc,
 # in spec/support/ and its subdirectories.
 Dir[Rails.root.join("spec/support/**/*.rb")].each {|f| require f}