{"id":64268,"date":"2023-05-12T18:54:53","date_gmt":"2023-05-12T18:54:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mailrelay.com\/glossary\/bots\/"},"modified":"2026-10-28T17:03:42","modified_gmt":"2026-10-28T17:03:42","slug":"bots","status":"publish","type":"glossary","link":"https:\/\/mailrelay.com\/en\/glossary\/bots\/","title":{"rendered":"Bots"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The word bot is short for robot, and it is simply a computer program that performs repetitive tasks automatically, based on predefined conditions.<\/p>\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The main goal of bots is to replicate human behavior and the actions people take, all automatically and at a much higher speed than any person can reach.<\/p>\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Some bots are good, like those that find and catalog web pages or recommendation bots. Others, on the other hand, are bad, such as those that launch web attacks or harvest email addresses to send spam, among others.<\/p>\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">And there are quite a few of them. According to <a href=\"https:\/\/cpl.thalesgroup.com\/resources\/application-security\/2026-bad-bot-report\">Thales&#8217; 2026 Bad Bot Report<\/a>, bots generated 53% of internet traffic in 2025, and malicious bots 40%.<\/p>\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Is it bot or bots?<\/h2>\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Both forms are correct, because one is the singular and the other the plural:<\/p>\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>Bot<\/strong> is the singular and <strong>bots<\/strong> the plural: one bot, two bots.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>It&#8217;s a valid word in both English and Spanish. It&#8217;s short for &#8220;robot&#8221;, and the Royal Spanish Academy (RAE) has included it in its dictionary since 2021.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>It&#8217;s written without italics or quotation marks, like any other ordinary word.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Spanish speakers use it as is, without translating it. If you want a synonym, you can use &#8220;robot&#8221; or &#8220;automated program&#8221;.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">How do bots work?<\/h2>\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Bots are made up of a series of algorithms that let them carry out actions faster than a person. Many of them do this thanks to artificial intelligence and <a href=\"https:\/\/mailrelay.com\/en\/glossary\/machine-learning\/\">machine learning<\/a>: they interpret and process natural language and, at the same time, learn to become more efficient.<\/p>\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In other words, a bot analyzes a situation and tries to solve it based on its algorithms. There are different types of bots, and how they work and what they can do depend on the tasks they are built for.<\/p>\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Types of bots<\/h2>\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">These are the most common bots and what each one is for:<\/p>\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-table\"><table><thead><tr><th>Type<\/th><th>What it does<\/th><th>Good or bad?<\/th><\/tr><\/thead><tbody><tr><td>Crawler<\/td><td>Crawls websites for search engines<\/td><td>Good<\/td><\/tr><tr><td>Chatbot<\/td><td>Talks with users and answers questions<\/td><td>Good<\/td><\/tr><tr><td>Monitoring<\/td><td>Checks that a website or service is up and running<\/td><td>Good<\/td><\/tr><tr><td>Price comparison<\/td><td>Collects prices from online stores<\/td><td>Depends on the use<\/td><\/tr><tr><td>Scraper<\/td><td>Copies content or data from websites<\/td><td>Depends on permission<\/td><\/tr><tr><td>Spambot<\/td><td>Harvests email addresses or fills in forms to send spam<\/td><td>Bad<\/td><\/tr><tr><td>Brute force<\/td><td>Tries passwords until it gets one right<\/td><td>Bad<\/td><\/tr><tr><td>Attack botnet<\/td><td>Floods servers with traffic (DDoS)<\/td><td>Bad<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1672\" height=\"941\" src=\"https:\/\/mailrelay.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/bots-buenos-y-malos.png\" alt=\"Good bots and bad bots: crawlers, chatbots and monitoring bots versus spambots, brute force and DDoS attacks\" class=\"wp-image-110744\" srcset=\"https:\/\/mailrelay.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/bots-buenos-y-malos.png 1672w, https:\/\/mailrelay.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/bots-buenos-y-malos-300x169.png 300w, https:\/\/mailrelay.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/bots-buenos-y-malos-1024x576.png 1024w, https:\/\/mailrelay.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/bots-buenos-y-malos-768x432.png 768w, https:\/\/mailrelay.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/bots-buenos-y-malos-1536x864.png 1536w, https:\/\/mailrelay.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/bots-buenos-y-malos-110x62.png 110w, https:\/\/mailrelay.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/bots-buenos-y-malos-60x34.png 60w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1672px) 100vw, 1672px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-group has-very-light-gray-background-color has-background\" style=\"border-radius:8px;padding-top:24px;padding-right:28px;padding-bottom:24px;padding-left:28px\"><div class=\"wp-block-group__inner-container is-layout-flow wp-block-group-is-layout-flow\">\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Make sure only people join your list<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Mailrelay forms come with double opt-in and reCAPTCHA to stop fake sign-ups from bots. Start for free.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-buttons is-layout-flex wp-block-buttons-is-layout-flex\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-button is-style-mailrelay-primary-button\"><a class=\"wp-block-button__link wp-element-button\" href=\"https:\/\/mailrelay.com\/en\/signup\/?utm_medium=cta&#038;utm_campaign=bots\">Create a free account<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Good bots<\/h2>\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">There are many kinds of bots, both bad and good, but let&#8217;s start with an overview of some of the most common good ones:<\/p>\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>&#8211; Spider bots or <a href=\"https:\/\/mailrelay.com\/en\/glossary\/crawling\/\">crawlers<\/a>.<\/strong> These are the bots search engines use to discover pages and offer the best results for their users&#8217; searches. They crawl the Web, examine the content of the web pages and catalog the results (after processing the content available on the websites).<\/p>\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>&#8211; Shopping bots.<\/strong>  They&#8217;re used to collect information on product prices online, as well as to analyze how users browse a website and tailor offers to each person.<\/p>\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>&#8211; Knowledge bots or &#8220;knowbots&#8221;.<\/strong> These are bots designed to visit websites periodically and gather information based on specific criteria.<\/p>\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>&#8211; <a href=\"https:\/\/mailrelay.com\/en\/glossary\/chatbot\/\">Conversational<\/a> bots.<\/strong> These hold conversations similar to the ones a person would have and return predefined answers based on specific phrases or patterns.<\/p>\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>&#8211; Automated messaging bots.<\/strong>  They send notifications or replies without human intervention, such as service alerts or confirmation messages.<\/p>\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>&#8211; Monitoring bots.<\/strong>  They&#8217;re very common and are used to constantly monitor the status of a system or website. Their real-time information usually helps spot service outages and detect malfunctions.<\/p>\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Bad bots<\/h2>\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">These are some of the types of bots designed to cause harm. Some can have a legitimate use, but since they&#8217;re usually used for malicious purposes, we&#8217;ve classified them as bad bots:<\/p>\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>&#8211; Attack bots.<\/strong> These are botnets that continuously attack servers using multiple computers. The most common of these attacks is denial of service (DDoS).<\/p>\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>&#8211; Ticket-buying bots.<\/strong>  Designed to buy tickets for popular events in bulk and resell them at much higher prices.<\/p>\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>&#8211; Download bots.<\/strong>  They&#8217;re used to download apps automatically. Their main use is to manipulate statistics with fake downloads that make a particular app more popular in app stores.<\/p>\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>&#8211; <a href=\"https:\/\/mailrelay.com\/en\/glossary\/web-scraping\/\">Web scraper<\/a> bots.<\/strong> These are designed to read website content and save a local copy so it can be reused. But sometimes, they don&#8217;t copy the entire content and focus on collecting specific data from the website.<\/p>\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Extractors are lawful if the website owner gives permission for their use; otherwise, they can be used maliciously to obtain information without the website owner&#8217;s permission.<\/p>\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>&#8211; Brute force bots.<\/strong>  These bots repeatedly try to force their way into a private area: they keep entering data until they hit on the correct login details.<\/p>\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>&#8211; Social bots.<\/strong> These bots are found on social media and their main use is to generate opinions, post messages without human involvement, follow other users&#8230; in short, to pose as a &#8220;normal&#8221; account run by a real person.<\/p>\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>&#8211; Spam bots (SPAM BOT).<\/strong> These are bots designed to capture email addresses on the Internet and then send mass emails to all of them without permission (<a href=\"https:\/\/mailrelay.com\/en\/glossary\/spam\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">spamming<\/a>). Generally, these emails aim to collect personal information and\/or scam the owner of the captured email address.<\/p>\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>&#8211; Vulnerability bots.<\/strong>  These bots look for and exploit errors or flaws in computer systems connected to the Internet. Those flaws, which can create a security problem, are called vulnerabilities, and this type of bot specializes in finding them.<\/p>\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Bots and email marketing<\/h2>\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Bots also affect your email campaigns, in three ways:<\/p>\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>Fake sign-ups on your forms.<\/strong> Some bots fill in <a href=\"https:\/\/mailrelay.com\/en\/glossary\/subscription-form\/\">subscription forms<\/a> with made-up or third-party addresses. This fills your list with contacts that don&#8217;t exist and, in serious cases, turns into <a href=\"https:\/\/mailrelay.com\/en\/glossary\/list-bombing\/\">list bombing<\/a>.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Opens and clicks that don&#8217;t come from people.<\/strong>  Many companies&#8217; security filters open emails and check their links before they reach the recipient. Apple Mail&#8217;s privacy protection also downloads images automatically. That&#8217;s why it&#8217;s better to look at your campaigns&#8217; trends and conversions rather than a single click.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Address harvesting for spam.<\/strong> <a href=\"https:\/\/mailrelay.com\/en\/glossary\/email-extractor\/\">Email extractors<\/a> crawl websites for addresses published as text, which then receive <a href=\"https:\/\/mailrelay.com\/en\/glossary\/spam\/\">spam<\/a>.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">How to protect your forms from bots<\/h3>\n\n<ol class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>Turn on a CAPTCHA<\/strong> so the form checks there&#8217;s a person behind it.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Use <a href=\"https:\/\/mailrelay.com\/en\/glossary\/double-opt-in\/\">double opt-in<\/a>.<\/strong> The address doesn&#8217;t join your list until its owner confirms from their inbox.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Review your sign-ups from time to time.<\/strong>  Lots of them in a few minutes, or with nonsense names, are a red flag.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Clean your list<\/strong> of addresses that bounce or never open, with good <a href=\"https:\/\/mailrelay.com\/en\/glossary\/email-list-hygiene\/\">list hygiene<\/a>.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1672\" height=\"941\" src=\"https:\/\/mailrelay.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/proteger-formularios-de-bots.png\" alt=\"How to protect your forms from bots: CAPTCHA, double opt-in, reviewing sign-ups and cleaning your list\" class=\"wp-image-110748\" srcset=\"https:\/\/mailrelay.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/proteger-formularios-de-bots.png 1672w, https:\/\/mailrelay.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/proteger-formularios-de-bots-300x169.png 300w, https:\/\/mailrelay.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/proteger-formularios-de-bots-1024x576.png 1024w, https:\/\/mailrelay.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/proteger-formularios-de-bots-768x432.png 768w, https:\/\/mailrelay.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/proteger-formularios-de-bots-1536x864.png 1536w, https:\/\/mailrelay.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/proteger-formularios-de-bots-110x62.png 110w, https:\/\/mailrelay.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/proteger-formularios-de-bots-60x34.png 60w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1672px) 100vw, 1672px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">How Mailrelay helps you<\/h2>\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">With Mailrelay you have everything you need so that only real people join your list:<\/p>\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>Subscription forms<\/strong> with double opt-in, always on, and reCAPTCHA protection.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Open and click statistics per link<\/strong> to see the trend of each campaign.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Bounce and unsubscribe management<\/strong> to keep your list clean.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Free account<\/strong> with 80,000 emails a month and 20,000 contacts.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-group has-very-light-gray-background-color has-background\" style=\"border-radius:8px;padding-top:24px;padding-right:28px;padding-bottom:24px;padding-left:28px\"><div class=\"wp-block-group__inner-container is-layout-flow wp-block-group-is-layout-flow\">\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Grow with real subscribers<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Capture contacts with protected forms, confirm them with double opt-in and send them your newsletters. Up to 80,000 emails a month for free with Mailrelay.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-buttons is-layout-flex wp-block-buttons-is-layout-flex\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-button is-style-mailrelay-primary-button\"><a class=\"wp-block-button__link wp-element-button\" href=\"https:\/\/mailrelay.com\/en\/signup\/?utm_medium=cta&#038;utm_campaign=bots\">Try Mailrelay for free<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Frequently asked questions<\/h2>\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">What is a bot?<\/h3>\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">It&#8217;s a computer program that performs tasks automatically and imitates a person&#8217;s behavior, such as browsing websites, replying to messages or filling in forms.<\/p>\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Is it bot or bots?<\/h3>\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Both forms are correct: &#8220;bot&#8221; is the singular and &#8220;bots&#8221; the plural. It&#8217;s short for &#8220;robot&#8221; and is written without italics.<\/p>\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Are all bots bad?<\/h3>\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">No. Search engine crawlers, customer service chatbots and monitoring bots are useful. The bad ones are those that send spam, steal data or attack websites.<\/p>\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">How much internet traffic do bots generate?<\/h3>\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">According to Thales&#8217; 2026 Bad Bot Report, bots generated 53% of internet traffic in 2025, and malicious bots 40%.<\/p>\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">How do I stop bots from subscribing to my newsletter?<\/h3>\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">With a CAPTCHA on the form and double opt-in, which requires subscribers to confirm their subscription from their inbox. That way, only real addresses get in.<\/p>\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Related posts<\/h2>\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/mailrelay.com\/en\/glossary\/chatbot\/\">Chatbot<\/a><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/mailrelay.com\/en\/glossary\/ai-agent\/\">AI agent<\/a><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/mailrelay.com\/en\/glossary\/crawling\/\">Crawling<\/a><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/mailrelay.com\/en\/glossary\/robots-txt\/\">Robots.txt<\/a><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/mailrelay.com\/en\/glossary\/web-scraping\/\">Web scraping<\/a><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/mailrelay.com\/en\/glossary\/list-bombing\/\">List bombing<\/a><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/mailrelay.com\/en\/glossary\/double-opt-in\/\">Double opt-in<\/a><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/mailrelay.com\/en\/glossary\/subscription-form\/\">Subscription form<\/a><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/mailrelay.com\/en\/glossary\/email-extractor\/\">Email extractor<\/a><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/mailrelay.com\/en\/glossary\/malware\/\">Malware<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"template":"","class_list":["post-64268","glossary","type-glossary","status-publish","hentry"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v28.7 - 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