How can I limit newsletter signups and add security measures to my online store?

Shopify Discussion

Topic summary

Multiple store owners are experiencing a surge of fake newsletter signups and customer account creations—one reporting over 100 fake signups daily despite minimal legitimate traffic (under 10 sessions/day). These fake entries bypass normal analytics, leaving no trace in traffic data, cart activity, or checkout metrics, appearing only in customer lists.

Key Issues:

  • Shopify’s native newsletter signup form lacks built-in security options (no CAPTCHA, no rate limiting per session/visit)
  • Third-party solutions attempted (Negate bot protection, Google reCAPTCHA) have proven ineffective
  • Disabling newsletter signup, Shop features, and adding custom fields did not stop the attacks
  • Fake accounts show random names with legitimate-looking email addresses but no actual engagement

Suspected Cause:
One support representative suggests a script may be injected into the theme itself, as bots are creating accounts without registering as site traffic.

Recommended Actions:

  • Contact theme developer to investigate potential code injection
  • For Shopify-developed themes, escalate to Shopify’s theme department
  • Multiple users report the same problem across different stores, indicating a broader platform vulnerability

The issue remains unresolved and is significantly impacting marketing efforts and data integrity.

Summarized with AI on November 15. AI used: claude-sonnet-4-5-20250929.
3

Hi Skye,

I hope that you understand that none of what you suggest could be interpreted as a solution.

Telling me to hunt down 3rd party solutions on my own is not helpful.

I am extremely familiar with coding and have consulted with the developer who I hired to build my site. This is why I know what limitations I am up against. Unless we can get access to Shopify’s liquid files for the Newsletter signup, it is impossible to modify testing or limits of signups. If I am wrong about this, I need to know. That is why I am posting this request.

If you know of a 3rd party app that can actually do a captcha for just the Newsletter signup, please let me know because I haven’t been able to find one. This is why I am reaching out to Shopify for this solution. And I mean SOLUTION, not “try this” or “try that”.

Thank you.

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