Why Am I Seeing Unusually High Click Counts in My Email Reports?

If you’re noticing an unexpectedly high number of clicks with your dashboards and reporting - especially from a single recipient - this is almost always caused by automated systems rather than genuine user engagement.

Inflated click counts are typically the result of non-human activity such as security software, spam filters, or automated link scanners interacting with your email.

We have noticed a particular uptick in this activity over the past few months, as some large email providers such as Microsoft increase their scanning of any new emails to your inbox. This has therefore meant that some of our clients are seeing inflated clicks in comparison to their previously held data. 

Why You See So Many Clicks

1. Spam Filters and Security Bots

Many email servers and security systems automatically scan incoming emails for malicious content.

To verify that links are safe, these systems “click” every link in the email - sometimes multiple times - before delivering the message to the recipient’s inbox. This security process can generate several clicks per link without any action from the actual recipient.

2. Automated Link Testing

Corporate and enterprise email environments often use advanced link-checking tools.

These tools may:

• Scan each link multiple times

• Test links from different IP addresses

• Generate dozens or even hundreds of clicks within seconds

If you see a large number of clicks in a very short timeframe from one recipient, it is typically the result of automated testing.

3. Link Prefetching by Email Providers

Some email providers prefetch or preload links to:

• Improve performance

• Enhance privacy protections

• Analyse content for safety

This process can register as a click in your reporting—even though the recipient never manually interacted with the email.

How This Affects Your Radar Reports

All Clicks Are Counted

Most email platforms cannot reliably distinguish between human clicks and automated clicks because the technical signal is identical.

As a result:

• All clicks—human and bot—are included in reporting

• Automated security scans can inflate click metrics

Identifying Automated Click Activity

Signs that clicks are likely automated:

• Extremely high click counts from a single recipient

• Clicks occurring immediately after delivery

• Multiple clicks within seconds

• Activity outside normal user behaviour patterns

In these cases, the activity almost certainly reflects automated systems rather than genuine engagement.

In Summary

Unusually high click counts are typically caused by security scanning and automated link-checking systems—not by real user interaction.

At Radar we are currently working on this, analysing the data for recognisable patterns with the aim of removing these from the stats we hold, to ensure that all clients see data that they can use in relation to older data (without these high click issues).