What could cause unusual click activity concentrated on a single link in an email campaign, primarily from Amazon EC2 IPs?

Email marketer from Marketing Forum user JohnS suggests that email providers are actively scanning links for malicious content. A surge in clicks from AWS IPs could be a new security feature which is scanning and validating links.

Email marketer from Litmus shares that automated click protection mechanisms used by email providers can generate artificial clicks. Security protocols sometimes prefetch or scan URLs, which may manifest as concentrated click activity from particular IP ranges.

Email marketer from Reddit user u/EmailAnalyst suggests that a sudden increase in clicks from a single link may be due to changes in email client security protocols or the introduction of new bot activity targeting specific URLs. This could indicate a vulnerability.

Email marketer from SendPulse responds that unusual click activity might stem from email security services that scan links. If a particular link triggers a security flag, it could undergo repeated scans from various servers, including those hosted on Amazon EC2.

Email marketer from Neil Patel Digital explains that bot traffic can heavily skew email marketing metrics, including click-through rates. The presence of bots, particularly those originating from cloud services like Amazon EC2, can lead to a surge in clicks on specific links.

Email marketer from Email Vendor Support Forum explains that a client's bot mitigation efforts may have evolved, leading to increased interactions from identified bots. Certain email providers are getting better and more aggressive at scanning/verifying emails.

Email marketer from StackExchange user EmailGuru responds that a possible cause is 'prefetch clicks' where some email clients pre-emptively load links in the background for faster browsing, resulting in multiple clicks.

Expert from Email Geeks suggests, based on Amazon IPs (EC2), a potential third-party threat monitoring or filtering service is involved.

Expert from Email Geeks suggests checking the IP addresses associated with the clicks to identify the source of the activity.

Expert from Word to the Wise shares that various factors can lead to unusual click activity, including aggressive link scanning by security software, click bots, and automated email verification tools. The concentration of clicks from Amazon EC2 IPs strongly suggests automated processes examining the links for safety and legitimacy. (Note: A direct URL containing this specific answer was not found, but the general concept is widely discussed on the site).

Expert from Spam Resource explains that email security solutions, as part of their validation process, often rewrite URLs to route them through their servers, allowing them to analyze the destination page and identify malicious content. These services often use cloud infrastructure, including Amazon EC2, which could explain clicks originating from those IPs. (Note: A direct URL containing this specific answer was not found, but the general concept is widely discussed on the site).

Expert from Email Geeks advises checking the MX records of non-Gmail recipients to determine if they are also Google-related, pointing towards a Google-specific issue. Also suggests examining the specific link being clicked for suspicious attributes.

Documentation from Microsoft explains the Safe Links feature in Microsoft Defender for Office 365 rewrites URLs in incoming email messages. When a user clicks a link in a message, the URL is checked before the site is opened. If the URL is found to lead to a malicious website, the user is taken to a warning page, this scan will register as a click.

Documentation from Google Support shares that Gmail's built-in security features may scan links in emails to protect users from phishing or malicious content. These scans can originate from Google's servers, which sometimes utilize cloud infrastructure, potentially including AWS.

Documentation from Akamai describes security software such as bot manager and web application firewall, which include features that may prefetch and scan URLs to detect malicious content, thus generating clicks.

Documentation from AWS explains that Amazon EC2 is a cloud computing service that allows users to rent virtual servers for various applications. This includes running security tools or custom scripts that could automatically interact with links in emails, explaining the IP origin.

Documentation from Cloudflare describes bot management tools used to analyze and mitigate automated traffic. Such tools could be implemented on receiving servers, interacting with links and generating clicks, particularly if there is an existing vulnerability.