How to prevent fake spam customers from subscribing to email newsletter

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Topic summary

A Shopify store owner is experiencing a surge of spam bot subscriptions to their email newsletter, with fake accounts reporting automated welcome emails as spam, potentially harming email deliverability.

Suggested Solutions:

  • Enable reCAPTCHA on the Shopify store to verify human users
  • Implement double opt-in requiring subscribers to confirm via email link
  • Use IP blocking apps to filter suspicious addresses

Mixed Results:
One user reported success after implementing reCAPTCHA and double opt-in. However, others continue experiencing fake signups despite enabling these measures. Some spam accounts originate from legitimate US locations (Buffalo, NY), bypassing country-based IP blockers. Users report fake registrations occurring through classic account pages even when those features are disabled.

Current Status:
The issue remains unresolved for multiple participants. Even Shopify Experts have been unable to fully prevent these spam signups, suggesting no definitive solution exists yet.

Summarized with AI on October 27. AI used: claude-sonnet-4-5-20250929.
1

Hello,

Over the last 24 hours I’ve received dozens of spam customer accounts subscribing to my email newsletter. I have an automated campaign sent to new subscribers. The email sent to these spam accounts was reported as spam by multiple fake accounts. I’m worried that this will harm email deliverability.

Is there a way to prevent this from happening? Is there any way to prevent spam accounts from subscribing?

Any tips on how to prevent this and handle fake spam customers is greatly appreciated.

Thank you.

1 Like
2

Hi @jeremymac

Here are some methods to prevent fake bots from subscribing your newsletter:

  1. Use a captcha to ask users to prove they are human before they can subscribe to your newsletter. Follow this guide to activate reCAPTCHA for your Shopify store.
  2. Require a double opt-in so that users must confirm their subscription before they can receive emails. After a user submits the sign-up form, they get a confirmation email with a link they have to click to finalize their subscription.
  3. Implement an IP address verification system that can filter out spam by blocking suspicious IP addresses. BM: Country blocker IP blocker is an app we recommend for this.

I hope that this helps!

3 Likes
3

Great I will try these, thank you!

4

Me too. A few every few days. Usually show up on the /account/register from Buffalo NY. I don’t even have classic accounts turned on so I don’t know how they keep signing up through the accounts page. They spend a few minutes on my site, I try to entertain them with something since they keep wasting their time.

5

Did this work for you? I have tried these fixes on my site but still get these fake signups for classic accounts. Because they come from within the US (NY) my country blocker doesn’t help. I don’t even know where they sign up as I don’t have the signups on those classic pages.

6

Ya it worked, I added a Recaptcha and double opt-in

7

Sorry folks, enabling captcha did nothing to limit fake signups for us. Both settings in Shopify captcha are enabled and it made no difference.

8

These solutions do not work. I’ve hired Shopify Experts and they can’t prevent this either.