Why Do People Enter Fake Details When Joining Mailing Lists?

I set up a mailing list for my blog (something I had been promising to do for months and months) and I have discovered something that is happening that I can not explain.

The subscribe box contains two fields: name & email. Every day I am receiving at least 25 sign-ups that are clearly not real addresses:

Name: pfLAXwaqplzLmluFEEJ

Email:

What is the point of them doing this? That is what I am struggling to understand. Obviously they can not gain anything by entering a fake email as they have to confirm their subscription by checking that email address for the confirmation email.

 

These people probably do not know that they have to confirm anything via email. They are just looking to get what you offer without giving you their info.

That's at least the answer in most cases. Are you solely offering a newsletter type deal, or are their other incentives? If other things are involved, be sure to clearly state that they will have to check their email to receive whatever you're offering

 

I am just offering a newsletter right now. I haven't come across a mailing list in years that doesn't make you confirm your email. Do they still exist?

 

Hmmm. If you are just offering a newsletter it would seem like it'd be common sense to enter a real email address in there. And unless you use a cheap crappy autoreponder, you're probably going to have to use double opt in.

I'm not sure if this would make a difference, but in the opt in form. Instead of email, you could put primary email. I've seen some IMers who know what they are doing do that. So it must not be to terrible of an idea.

 

Those are most likely spambots just filling up text fields they think are something where they can leave a link.

 

Probably bots.
If they aren't then they probably are in fear of getting spammed or you selling their details.

 

Bots/spammers. Even if someone is real, and uses fake info, it'll be something like "Joe Nobody" and the email could be relevant, just a throw away one.

 

This is just a fact of email opt-ins. Pay no attention (unless you are getting tons of them). The interested people will give their full details.

 

Spams and unnecessary friends trying to make contact... lol.... what else could go wrong...

 

They think they don't have to conform their email address, and they just want to get your free ebook or video training or whatever you're offering without you emailing them in the future.

 

This is probably coming from spam bots. They look for any kind of forms without CAPTCHA's to spam! You should add some sort of spam filtering.

Generally thought, People also provide fake names and emails that they rarely use to get free stuff from you BUT once they receive your free content, you will never hear from them again!

Welcome to the world of email list!

 

If you are using Word-press there are a variety of CAPTCHA options. You might find something that is not intrusive to real visitors but stops the Bots. You may even find an ap that is invisible that will still stop most of it.
Seems like I have found something like that in the past but I don't remember very clear what the ap was called. If you go to "ad plug-ins" and search for "simple captcha" I think you will find it.

 

Welcome to the world of spam my friend. Learn about CAPTCHA.

Those emails and names that you see are not generated by anyone. It's just a program that someone created and it's searching the web for reasons beyond us to benefit the user who created the program.

 

I experience similar results with some of my niche blogs. Apart from being annoying, it can't really hurt can it? Simply ignore it.

I would recommend against going for any captcha solutions because it usually lowers down the subscription rate for genuine signups - you know, people have always and still want it to be as easy, straightforward and simple as possible .

 

Our spam responses have reduced to just about zero since we installed Captcha on our blogs. Highly recommended.

 

bots. or if they are real they are not that interested. But if they're not interested why are they still filling those up. so most probably hey are bots