: Why do "Registration-bots" exist? What do they gain from registering on my site? I'm curious as i've been developing some anti-bot procedures for a website, only because I see others doing it.

@Radia820

Yes, fake accounts are bad for your site. They could significantly hurt your site's reputation.


When they register, your site probably sends an email to a bad address or an address that belongs to someone that didn't register on your site. That makes you look like a possible spammer.
They could use the accounts to degrade performance on your site (this is one of the most concerning because if they triggered this using automated techniques it'd be very difficult to stop without inconveniencing your real users)
They could use the fake accounts to skew your performance metrics in areas like abandoned carts by customers, etc.
They could abuse features like refer a friend and sending wishlists to other email addresses that will then mark your emails as spam (If you have those available).
When you go to send a newsletter at a later date, your list may be filled with bad addresses.


You also have to consider the things they might do that can't be anticipated.

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