Spam filters registering clicks?

[SanfordWhiteman]

Now, it's work noting that we have a URLDefensePoint system in place. All links in emails are re-coded by the server with DefensePoint to check. I'm thinking that it's testing the link for us to see what happens prior to allowing the browser to go to the link.

I think you're correct.

And this is a case where, unlike inbound scanners I know of, the outbound/opt-in service can afford to perform deep scanning because they only see a subset of links. That is, they are actually following the JS redirect, so they generate a Visit Web Page as well as a click. (Inbound scanners can't afford to do this because from a defensive programming standpoint they could tie up their own resources.)

[Robb_Barrett]

This is the same thing I'm seeing on spam traps too. You get a flurry of clicks and few VWPs.

[Carmi_Lopez-Jo1]

Thanks to Kiersti Esparza​, Manager of Privacy/Deliverability at Marketo, who has just posted a community article on this topic.  Understanding a Spike in Click Activity

Cheers!

Carmi

[Devraj_Grewal]

I provided a couple of workarounds for this issue on my discussion topic: Email was clicked before it was delivered? It's a link scanner

[Robb_Barrett]

Spam spam spam eggs spam spam spam

Here's something I put together on how to find link scanners / Spam traps.

[Anonymous]

Hi Matt,

Thanks for the solution! I wasn't able to find the url link for the 1 pixel picture. Is there a specific link that needs to be added or can it be any link we set?

Thanks,
Julia

[Anonymous]

Matt Roberts​ question above for you

[SanfordWhiteman]

Choose any link you want. The URL doesn't even have to exist for Marketo to track the click. It just has to be identifiable.

However, this won't actually solve the issue. All it means is that other click events directly contiguous to the "lure" click are spurious. A click one minute later is probably the human lead her/himself.  Marketo doesn't have enough granularity for this approach to work (if you pull all activity data out into your own DB, you can action it more successfully, but that is not on the table for most users).

[Anonymous]

Do you need to add the link in the text version?

Another thing I noticed is that the bot clicks don't have any inferred information on the lead. Anyone else notice that?

[SanfordWhiteman]

Do you need to add the link in the text version?

No, that won't increase accuracy.

Another thing I noticed is that the bot clicks don't have any inferred information on the lead. Anyone else notice that?

This isn't actually because they're automated clicks per se. It's because they don't run Munchkin. In fact, you'd see the same behavior if you add a direct link to a PDF (or other asset other than a web page) in an email. Direct links are not best practice for this reason.