How can I identify and prevent suspicious or bot-generated email addresses in my lists?

Email marketer from ActiveCampaign Blog explains that monitoring the sources of your signups can help identify suspicious patterns, such as a sudden influx of signups from a single IP address or location.

Email marketer from Neil Patel Blog explains that using a double opt-in process can help ensure that only valid and interested subscribers are added to your list, reducing the likelihood of bot-generated addresses.

Email marketer from StackOverflow explains that implementing rate limiting to restrict the number of signup requests from a single IP address within a specific timeframe can prevent bots from flooding your system with fake addresses.

Email marketer from DigitalMarketer explains that checking for and blocking disposable email addresses (temporary or throwaway emails) can help prevent spammers and bots from signing up with temporary accounts.

Email marketer from Reddit shares that using confirmed opt-in (double opt-in) ensures that subscribers actively verify their email address, reducing the risk of adding bot-generated or invalid addresses to your list.

Email marketer from Mailchimp Resource shares that using signup forms with honeypots can help trick bots into filling out hidden fields, allowing you to identify and filter out bot-generated submissions.

Marketer from Email Geeks shares that after searching their database, they found users using the same domain with matching character counts before and after the '.', suggesting a privacy feature.

Email marketer from Sendinblue Blog shares that using CAPTCHA alternatives like sliding puzzles or simple math questions during signup forms can help differentiate bots from human users, which leads to preventing suspicious entries.

Email marketer from Hubspot Blog shares that regularly cleaning your email list to remove inactive subscribers and addresses that have bounced can help improve deliverability and prevent sending to potentially bot-generated addresses.

Email marketer from StackExchange explains that implementing a regex or a built-in email syntax validator to check the format of the email address ensures that it follows a standard email format, preventing many bot-generated and invalid email addresses.

Email marketer from Reddit explains that using email verification services will help check email addresses for validity, syntax errors, and domain existence before adding them to your list, thus preventing suspicious entries.

Expert from Email Geeks shares experience with bot submissions to a web form, noting the use of different IPs not on Spamhaus or TOR. They also mention that complaints about the COI request tipped them off that something was weird, and they had forgotten to turn the CAPTCHA back on.

Marketer from Email Geeks says their lists have been hit with similar addresses and that their ESP says they are 100% bot related and are trying to clean them out. They also recommend using COI.

Expert from Email Geeks suggests looking at the connecting IP addresses (Tor outputs, known VPNs, same IPs) and adding a captcha to the signup form being used.

Expert from Email Geeks suggests that a garbage username at a corporate domain plus clicks makes them suspect that a corporate security system or BES is following the links.

Expert from Spam Resource explains that purchasing email lists almost guarantees you're adding spam trap and bot-generated addresses to your lists. He recommends building your list organically.

Expert from Word to the Wise shares that when dealing with a list bombing attack, understanding the scope and impact is critical. They advise monitoring feedback loops, analyzing bounce rates, and identifying patterns in the incoming data to mitigate the effects of malicious subscriptions.

Documentation from ietf.org explains that referring to RFC 5322 for email format specifications allows you to implement strict validation rules to ensure that submitted email addresses conform to the standard, rejecting improperly formatted or suspicious entries.

Documentation from Google Developers explains that implementing Google reCAPTCHA on your signup forms helps distinguish between human users and bots, preventing automated signups with suspicious email addresses. reCAPTCHA v3 allows you to score interactions without user friction.

Documentation from Project Honeypot explains that using honeypots (hidden form fields) can help identify and trap bots that automatically fill out forms, preventing them from adding fake email addresses to your list.

Documentation from OWASP explains that using input validation techniques, such as checking for valid email formats and rejecting suspicious characters, can help prevent the acceptance of bot-generated email addresses.

Documentation from Spamhaus explains that using blocklists to check the IP address of the user is signing up will help identify and reject suspicious signups from known sources of spam or bot activity.