This happened to me a few days ago and it’s potentially quite serious.
I wanted to let you know because it’s the sort of thing that could really catch you out if you’re not aware of the risks.
The good news is there are several simple solutions which I also share with you.
Click PLAY Below To See…
Links mentioned in the video:
- My Free Book
- Captcha & Hidden Fields
- My Email System – Check out the pricing page – it could be cheaper for you (it doesn’t double-count subscribers on multiple lists like Aweber does and it’s FAR more powerful – I use the “Lite” plan)
Were this helpful to you? Please drop a quick comment below along with any questions or thoughts you have! All the best, Rob 🙂
Great advice as always Rob.
Thank you Grahame 🙂
Thanks Rob,
Great info clearly presented. Just goes to show that you need to be vigilant all the time.
Well said, it’s definitely worth paying attention to Gordon. This kind of spam appears to be on the rise unfortunately!
Thanks for commenting, I appreciate it 🙂 Cheers, Rob.
Great stuff Rob and noted as I embark on my Nano journey! 🙂
As you say single optin should be fine for people who purchase from us, for example via Clickbank, it’s the public forms on our websites we have to watch. I certainly hadn’t appreciated Bot signups were on the rise so thanks for bringing this to our attention.
Another reason for monitoring is a mass of Bot sign-ups could easily tip you into a higher pricing bracket with your autoresponder which is clearly going to hit your pocket!
Thanks again Rob, thought provoking and a post that needs acting on!
Thanks for sharing your thoughts and feedback Craig!
Yes, it could well increase your pricing. I see the big risk as being to your email sending reputation so it’s well worth taking the steps including the regular manual check.
The good news is these steps are difficult so hopefully it shouldn’t cause any major problems for you.
Yeah – I have a bot problem now and trying to use Google recapcha3 with hidden option so a valid person clicking on cta button doesn’t see anything they have to click on to prove they are not a bot. Until that is working properly I’ve blocked everyone from the suspect optin.
Sorry to hear that Lee and great to hear you’re taking proactive action on it!
I have a feeling the email service providers will start implementing solution for their side as the problem as the potential to do some serious damage to the reputation of the servers they send from.
Thanks very much for sharing your insights Lee 🙂
My optin form now displays the recaptcha badge and I tested the add function, so I can add subscribers while I send their free pub.
I will be watching closely to see if bots are not adding fake, but valid subscribers to my list.
Now I need to see if I can prune my list(s) since I am close to the next price point in activecampaign which would increase costs $40/mo. I had to switch to monthly because my annual payment was due and much too large for my June budget.
My visual check of email addresses of subscribers after the bot activity began (first name vs email address) does not show obvious differences and the engagement tool looks dangerous since it does not show which contacts are about to be deleted.
AC has a way to check engagement, but only does so going forward.
I really hate distractions like this, but due to tight finances, they become necessary in crisis mode. Keeps me in tactical mode not strategic.
Your help and products are very much appreciated.
Hi Rob,
What caused my comment to appear in a narrow column?
Hi Lee,
One option is to run your list through a service like https://neverbounce.com
Then clean it going forward based on engagement, very easy to track in ActiveCampaign either with their system, or build your own by adding a point (e.g., 1 for email open, 2 for a click etc) to a custom field you create.
Hope this helps! Rob
P.S. Your comment appear narrow because WordPress indents comments that reply to previous ones – suppose to make easier reading but perhaps not always 🙂
Always in your debt – thanks again!
Thanks for the information Rob. Its always a problem getting quality subscribers to your list on a blog or web site. I was not fully aware that the “bot” problem was increasing. I use your approach of a double optin .
Thanks Sean, appreciate your thoughts on this. Optin forms on your site can be a great source of list growth as often people will have consumed some content before signing up so they can become really engaged subscribers. I think double optin is a very good solution. I didn’t mention it in the video but I’m also looking into verification services like https://neverbounce.com too as a possibility. Thanks again Sean. Cheers, Rob.
Another “gem” of informative information Rob.
Thanks for your presentation…. certainly appreciated.
You’re very welcome Roy and thank you for your kind words, great to hear it helped you 🙂
Hi Rob
Having just recently spent some time clearing junk subscribers out of my lists I am definitely going back to the double opt in for my squeeze pages. Your advice makes perfect sense and I certainly don’t want bots or spam issues to deal with.
Thanks for sharing this great piece of advice.
David
Thanks David, very interesting to hear you feel the same after looking at your lists. It’s so easy to bury this issue and buries itself if you never look at the subscriber lists. I think double-optin is great for “public” optins and it raises the bar a bit: if people can’t be bothered to confirm their email then they probably also likely to be less engaged. It also stops people putting in donaldduckdjfh@gmail.com just to see if they can get your free gift!
Appreciate you taking the time to comment 🙂
Very useful content as ever Rob, double vs single optins is always a pros and cons balancing act. I think your bots perspective swings it to double for me. Thanks
Hi Dave,
Thank you, I hope this will be useful for you in future. Bots like this do seems to be on the rise and attacks in general seem to move in trends (e.g., a few years back every WP site out there appeared to have been hacked at some point but now it’s rare… touch wood). Generally things are a LOT better than they used to be in my opinion but it’s still worth being vigilant of course.
Cheers, Rob.
Hi Rob,
Thanks so much for this – simple helpful advice as always! I’ll be using Double-optin in future, apart for sales emails.
Slightly different, but related issue: I was getting lots of spam comments via a contact form. Captcha wasn’t stopping it, so have moved to JetPack forms, which is trapping a lot more spam. I’m going to try the bot-trapping hidden field next. Apart from that, have you any tips for avoiding spam via contact forms?
Cheers,
Jonathan
Glad it helped Jonathan and thank you for posting your comment 🙂
I’m afraid I can’t recommend anything specific for the contact form. I used to use a captcha but of course spammers can even break those now! Hopefully the hidden fields will work. If you look at my contact page I have a straight email address which bizarrely results in little spam getting through. It’s all piped through to Gmail which (unlike Outlook) I find is excellent at filtering between the inbox and spam folders. So I check my spam folder say twice a week and rarely do I find any false positives. Sorry I can’t be more helpful but good luck!
Cheers, Rob