Why am I getting a lot of strange signups to my newsletter?

Email marketer from Neil Patel Blog explains that bot signups can occur due to bots automatically filling out forms, and they can be identified by looking for patterns in the signup data like similar usernames or IPs.

Email marketer from Email Geeks explains that the fake signups could be used to give legitimacy to an account, making it harder to detect nefarious activity.

Email marketer from Reddit shares that competitors sometimes sign up fake addresses to spam them in the future and then report the email as spam, therefore, negatively impacting sender reputation.

Email marketer from MailerLite Blog shares that spambots are often the cause. They are programmed to fill out forms quickly and automatically, resulting in multiple signups from the same IP address or with similar email addresses. Also it could be disgruntled customers or competitors signing up fake emails to later mark as spam.

Email marketer from Litmus explains that spammers often use address harvesting bots. This is where bots crawl pages looking for @ signs to add to lists. Sometimes spammers will create what is called a “honeypot”—a fake email address they sprinkle across the Internet in places only a bot is likely to find it. These “honeypot” email addresses attract spam and if you start getting emails to a fake address, there is a good chance your website has been crawled.

Email marketer from Sender.net that spambots are programmed to fill out web forms quickly and automatically, using random or generated information. These bots are often deployed across multiple websites simultaneously, leading to numerous signups from the same IP address or with similar email address patterns.

Email marketer from WebsiteBuilderExpert explains that some nefarious users automate creating new fake accounts on sites/newsletters, then use those accounts to post fake or misleading content, reviews, or comments. This is used to spread misinformation, promote products or services in a dishonest way, or damage the reputation of competitors.

Email marketer from Email Marketing Forum shares that some strange signups could be part of an email list bombing attack, where someone is trying to get your email address blacklisted by overwhelming it with spam signups.

Email marketer from Email Geeks shares that the sign ups could be for a newsletter aggregation service gathering data on various messages or an IP warmup service generating fake activity.

Email marketer from ActiveCampaign explains that there are a few ways to prevent fake signups such as CAPTCHA, double opt-in, or using a blocklist.

Email marketer from ZeroBounce explains the ways bots are identified such as unusual usernames, gibberish text, or suspicious patterns in data. Also they use unusually fast or repetitive actions that indicate automation.

Expert from SpamResource shares that automated email address harvesting bots are the main reason people are getting strange signups, and advises using technical barriers like CAPTCHAs to reduce automated signups.

Expert from Email Geeks shares that they have experienced similar activity with Gmail accounts and proxy IPs and that they believe the end goal may be to degrade engagement stats.

Expert from Email Geeks suggests that the unusual signups could be a delivery monitoring tool checking the functionality of the subscription process.

Expert from Word to the Wise explains that honeypots (email addresses only humans would fill in) are a great way to catch bad actors attempting to signup. However, bad actors can also submit a real email in those fields so be sure to monitor what you are seeing.

Documentation from Stop Forum Spam explains that their service maintains a database of known spammers and bots, which can be used to identify and block suspicious signups on your website.

Documentation from Google explains that reCAPTCHA helps prevent automated software from engaging in abusive activities on your website, including fake signups, by using advanced risk analysis techniques.

Documentation from Cloudflare explains that bots often perform malicious activities and lead to fake signups. They recommend using bot management solutions to detect and mitigate bot traffic.

Documentation from Mimecast explains that email harvesting is a technique used by spammers to collect email addresses from websites and other online sources. Bots automatically scan websites for email addresses and add them to spam lists, which can lead to strange signups if these harvested addresses are used to subscribe to newsletters.