Why am I getting bot signups with domain names in the email address?

Summary

Bot signups with domain names in email addresses are a multifaceted problem stemming from various sources and motivations. Experts and marketers suggest causes ranging from simple mischief and email validation testing to malicious activities like competitor sabotage, probing for website vulnerabilities, and SEO spam. These bots often exploit free trials, harvest emails, or try to ruin the reputation of a sending infrastructure. Disposable email addresses are commonly used to mask identities during these activities. Mitigating these signups involves deploying reCAPTCHA, bot management tools, honeypots, rate limiting, and improved email validation and monitoring systems.

Key findings

  • Diverse Motivations: Reasons range from random griefing and testing to sabotage and SEO spam.
  • Exploitation of Offers: Bots exploit free trials and promotions.
  • Vulnerability Probing: Web forms are probed for weaknesses and code injection opportunities.
  • Competitor Sabotage: Fake signups aim to inflate counts or damage sender reputation.
  • Infrastructure Attacks: Signup abuse is an attempt to damage sending infrastructure reputation.
  • Data Masking: Disposable emails mask identities for malicious activities.
  • SEO Spam: Bot activity contributes to SEO spam and profile creation.

Key considerations

  • Implement reCAPTCHA: Use reCAPTCHA to differentiate bots from genuine users.
  • Employ Bot Management: Utilize tools to identify and block malicious bot traffic.
  • Enhance Validation: Improve email validation and filtering to detect disposable addresses.
  • Rate Limiting: Implement rate limiting to restrict form submission frequency.
  • Honeypots: Deploy honeypots to trap and identify bot activity.
  • Monitor POST Data: Check POST data logs for SEO-related content to identify spam bots.
  • Pattern Detection: Monitor form submissions for patterns indicative of automated behavior.

What email marketers say
9Marketer opinions

Bot signups with domain names in the email address occur for various reasons. These include black hat SEO tactics to create spam profiles, attempts to exploit free trials or promotions, probing for website vulnerabilities, competitor sabotage, and testing email validation systems. Bots may also be used for malicious purposes, such as damaging sender reputation or simply scanning the internet for future opportunities.

Key opinions

  • SEO Spam: Bots create accounts for black hat SEO, generating spam profiles and comments.
  • Exploitation: Bots exploit free trials and promotions, using disposable email addresses.
  • Vulnerability Probing: Bots probe for website vulnerabilities, testing security and code injection.
  • Competitor Sabotage: Competitors use bots to inflate subscriber counts or damage sender reputation.
  • Validation Testing: Bots test email validation systems.
  • Malicious Intent: Bots scan the internet for future malicious purposes.

Key considerations

  • Security Measures: Implement CAPTCHAs and honeypots to prevent automated sign-ups.
  • Pattern Detection: Monitor for patterns in usernames and IP addresses to identify bots.
  • Email Validation: Enhance email validation systems to detect disposable or suspicious email addresses.
  • Infrastructure Protection: Bots attempt to ruin the reputation of sending infrastructure.
Marketer view

Email marketer from Moz Community Q&A answers that spam signups, including those with strange email addresses, are often a result of bots probing for vulnerabilities in your website's forms. They may be trying to exploit a security flaw or simply testing to see if they can inject malicious code.

December 2022 - Moz Community Q&A
Marketer view

Email marketer from Neil Patel's Blog shares that one reason for fake email signups (including bot signups) is competitor sabotage. Competitors might use bots to sign up with fake emails to inflate your subscriber count or damage your sender reputation by marking your emails as spam.

September 2023 - Neil Patel's Blog
Marketer view

Email marketer from Email Geeks suggests that signup form abuse is an attempt to ruin the reputation of the sending infrastructure.

June 2023 - Email Geeks
Marketer view

Email marketer from Reddit user on r/Spam shares that bots with domain names are sometimes used to test for vulnerabilities. This user also mentions bots with domain names can be generated from bots who are testing systems to test for security vulnerabilities or to see if you are validating email addresses.

January 2024 - Reddit
Marketer view

Email marketer from DigitalMarketer writes about why fake sign-ups might be occuring. They state it could be possible that people are not entering their main email address, and using a fake email address instead. Alternatively, they state that bot creation could be occurring.

August 2022 - DigitalMarketer
Marketer view

Email marketer from Stack Overflow user shares that many ways exist to prevent automated sign-ups. This can be done using both CAPTCHAs, and other methods, such as checking for patterns in user name or IP Address.

June 2024 - Stack Overflow
Marketer view

Email marketer from Quora explains that bot signups with domain names are often created to exploit free trials or promotions. Bots can automatically create accounts to take advantage of these offers, and the email addresses are disposable and generated for this purpose.

March 2021 - Quora
Marketer view

Email marketer from Stack Exchange shares that sometimes bots just scan the internet, hoping to register on a site for potential malicious reasons in the future.

April 2022 - Stack Exchange
Marketer view

Email marketer from Email Geeks explains that weird domain spam is often a result of black hat SEO tactics, where tools attempt to mass-create profile pages or comment spam by submitting any web form they find.

January 2024 - Email Geeks

What the experts say
5Expert opinions

Bot signups with domain names often result from various malicious activities. These include random griefing, attempts to validate email addresses, harming competitors, probing for weaknesses, burying tracks for hacking, malicious intent, pitching form protection solutions, or the abuse originating from blog comment spam bots. Disposable email addresses are used to mask user identities and can be linked to spamming and signup abuse. Fake signups may also be an attempt to test email validation and deliverability systems.

Key opinions

  • Griefing/Validation: Signups are sometimes random griefing or attempts to validate email addresses.
  • Competition Sabotage: Competitors attempt to harm others through form abuse.
  • Security Probing: Forms are used to identify weaknesses and potential hacks.
  • Data Masking: Disposable emails hide identities during signup abuse.
  • SEO Spam: POST data might show the abuse originating from blog comment spam bots.
  • Testing Deliverability: They are testing email validation and deliverability systems.

Key considerations

  • Monitor POST Data: Check POST data logs for SEO-related content to identify spam bots.
  • Implement CAPTCHAs: Using captcha on forms to identify bots.
  • Email Validation: Improve email validation to detect disposable addresses.
  • Security Audits: Implement constant website security audits.
Expert view

Expert from Word to the Wise shares several reasons why fake signups may be attempted, including testing email validation and email deliverability systems, or potential spambot activity.

April 2022 - Word to the Wise
Expert view

Expert from Email Geeks suggests that signup form abuse is either random griefing or an attempt to use the form as an email validator.

June 2022 - Email Geeks
Expert view

Expert from Email Geeks suggests that if the POST data is logged, it might reveal SEO content, indicating the abuse originates from a blog comment spam bot.

November 2021 - Email Geeks
Expert view

Expert from Email Geeks shares multiple reasons for feeding garbage into signup forms, including harming competitors, probing for weaknesses, burying tracks for hacking, malicious intent, and pitching form protection solutions.

June 2024 - Email Geeks
Expert view

Expert from Spam Resource explains that disposable email addresses and similar tactics are used to mask a user's true identity and can be linked to various malicious activities, including signup abuse and spamming.

November 2024 - Spam Resource

What the documentation says
5Technical articles

Bot signups with domain names in the email address can be prevented using various mitigation techniques. reCAPTCHA distinguishes between legitimate users and bots, preventing form completion. OWASP recommends CAPTCHAs, rate limiting, and honeypots. Cloudflare's bot management tools identify and block malicious bots, analyzing traffic patterns. Bots target easily abused forms and harvest emails to create accounts, sometimes bypassing filters.

Key findings

  • reCAPTCHA Mitigation: reCAPTCHA helps distinguish between legitimate users and bots.
  • Bot Mitigation Techniques: CAPTCHAs, rate limiting, and honeypots hinder bot signups.
  • Bot Management Tools: Cloudflare's tools identify and block malicious bots through traffic analysis.
  • Targeted Forms: Bots seek out easily abused forms.
  • Email Harvesting: Bots harvest emails to create accounts, bypassing filters.

Key considerations

  • Implement reCAPTCHA: Use reCAPTCHA on signup forms to prevent bot submissions.
  • Employ Mitigation Techniques: Incorporate CAPTCHAs, rate limiting, and honeypots into form handling.
  • Utilize Bot Management: Implement bot management tools for traffic and behavior analysis.
  • Monitor Form Abuse: Monitor the rate of form submissions and look for suspicious behaviour.
  • Filter Bypass Prevention: Enhance email filtering and monitoring to detect bot-created accounts.
Technical article

Email marketer from Stop Forum Spam writes about potential checks and balances for emails. This site also writes about bots that look for forms that are easy to use for spam signups.

March 2023 - Stop Forum Spam
Technical article

Documentation from Cloudflare explains that bot management tools can identify and block malicious bots attempting to sign up on your website. These tools analyze traffic patterns and behavior to distinguish between legitimate users and bots.

September 2023 - Cloudflare
Technical article

Documentation from reCAPTCHA Documentation explains that automated abuse, including bot signups, can be mitigated by using reCAPTCHA. reCAPTCHA helps distinguish between legitimate users and bots, preventing them from completing signup forms.

March 2022 - reCAPTCHA Documentation
Technical article

Documentation from OWASP shares that various bot mitigation techniques, such as CAPTCHAs, rate limiting, and honeypots, can be used to prevent bot signups. These techniques make it harder for bots to complete signup forms and identify them as non-human.

October 2024 - OWASP (Open Web Application Security Project)
Technical article

Email marketer from Project Honeypot writes about bad actors harvesting emails. Bad actors often have bots find emails and create an account with these emails. These bots can get past filters to make sure these accounts are not identified as bots.

August 2022 - Project Honeypot