Overview

You have added a subscription link to your website or webform and want to prevent spammers from using bots to sign up for your ListMaster Lists and Discussion Groups. You would like to know what can be configured in ListManager to prevent fake accounts from being signed up.

Solution

A double opt-in requires that new members reply to an email sent to them after signing up for a list. This ensures that the email address is deliverable and that the member has access to the mailbox.

This is helpful in preventing bad or invalid emails from joining the list that can later cause potential deliverability issues and can be implemented in a form, by emailing your list, and CSV import, depending on how you are adding new members.

Subscription Form

Use ListManger to generate an HTML form that you can copy into your website for new members to subscribe with a double opt-in:

1. Log on to ListManager as an Administrator
   
   
2. Navigate to Utilities > Web Forms > New Subscribe Form
   
   
3. Set Confirmation to Send one confirmation message
   
   
4. Optionally, set additional settings for Confirmation Pages, Lists, or Demographics. Additional information on these settings is available in the ListManager Help: New Subscribe Form
   
   
5. Click Get HTML for the resulting HTML to post onto your website
   
   
6. Click Done

When a user uses your subscription form, they receive a confirmation email that they must reply to in order to join the List or Discussion Group.

Additional Webform Security

The double opt-in method of adding new members is the extent of measures that can be taken within ListManager itself. However, adding a Captcha to your webform can greatly improve security from spambots. There are a wide variety of tools available on the internet for this purpose, including Google reCAPTCHA. Consider adding a captcha to your webform for greater security.

Subscribe by Email

If members subscribe by sending an email to "join-list@", a double opt-in can be configured with the New Subscriber Policy:

1. Log on to ListManager as an Administrator
   
   
2. Navigate to Utilities > List Settings > New Subscriber Policy
   
   
3. Set the Confirm subscribes radio button to Yes
   
   
4. Click Save

When a user emails your "join-list@", they will receive an email confirmation that they must reply to in order to join the List or Discussion group. For additional information on how this works, see the ListManager Help: New Subscriber Policy

CSV Upload

If new members are added by a manual CSV file upload, a double opt-in can be selected from the upload options with the following steps:

1. Log on to ListManager as an Administrator
2. Navigate to Members > Add Members > Import Members from CSV File
   
   
3. For the Action field select the radio button Import as unconfirmed members, and send confirmation request
   
   
4. Click Browse to select the desired CSV file from your local machine
   
   
5. Click Import to trigger the member import

Users who are imported in this manner will receive a confirmation email for them to respond to in order to join the List or Discussion Group.