Why am I getting bot signups with domain names in the email address?
Summary
What email marketers say9Marketer opinions
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.
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.
Email marketer from Email Geeks suggests that signup form abuse is an attempt to ruin the reputation of the sending infrastructure.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
What the experts say5Expert opinions
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.
Expert from Email Geeks suggests that signup form abuse is either random griefing or an attempt to use the form as an email validator.
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.
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.
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.
What the documentation says5Technical articles
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.