Notice of Deprecation of Forward to Friend functionality
As of September 29, 2025, the Forward to a Friend feature in Marketo Engage 2.0 emails will be completely deprecated for all customers. This will affect the Forward to a Friend token and Forward to a Friend links in emails that have already been or will be sent using the token.
Why is this deprecation happening?
A security vulnerability was found with the Forward to a Friend email URL that could allow an attacker to forward an email they themselves had not received by using an mkt_tok value. While data is not exposed to the attacker or recipient, and recipients of forwarded emails are not subscribed to receive future emails, there is a brand risk and risk of email complaints to ESPs.
In addition, this functionality has very low adoption among the Marketo Engage customer base and is not planned to be brought forward into the new Email Designer.
How do I know if this deprecation affects me?
If your emails use the Forward to a Friend token this deprecation will impact you. If you need to verify if leads have recently interacted with any Forward to a Friend links in your emails, you can build a Smart List using the “Sent Forward to Friend Email” and/or “Received Forward to Friend” filters.
Due to the low adoption of this feature, and the low click rate of these links, we do not anticipate this being an impactful change to customers.
What is the behavior of the Forward to a Friend token post-deprecation?
- The Forward to a Friend token will be removed from suggestion menus in the email editor
- Forward to a Friend links in emails that are already sent, and inboxes will resolve to a page with an error message “An error occurred while forward to friend.”
- If a Forward to a Friend token is used in emails send post-deprecation, no URL will be populated, and the token will resolve to a single whitespace
- “Received Forward to Friend” and “Sent Forward to Friend Email” triggers and filters will remain in Smart Campaign and Smart List selections at this time.
Can I deprecate this feature in my instance before September 29th?
Yes. We can deprecate on a per subscription basis beginning September 1, 2025. Please reach out to Customer Support to coordinate.
Can I delay the deprecation of this feature for my instance?
No. This deprecation will happen on September 29th for all customers.
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