Battle of the Bots with Mariska Calabrese, beehiiv & Jakub Alexa, Omnivery

Email feels free, but the economics are brutal: zero-cost sending makes abuse infinitely scalable. In this episode, Jacqueline sits down with Mariska and Jakub to unpack the "bot layer" that's quietly wrecking modern email: security scanners, crawlers, and malicious automation that inflate clicks, poison dashboards, and trigger the wrong automations. They get specific about why bad actors iterate faster than platforms, why "heuristic guesswork" leads to painful false positives, and how beehiiv opted for radical transparency by showing verified clicks alongside raw data. The conversation also jumps channels: Jakub argues RCS could undercut SMS on price and become the next high-volume abuse playground.This episode was recorded in October 2025. Any references to global events were included as illustrative context, not as commentary on current news.Timestamps01:20 – Worst unsubscribe nightmares, Roman aqueducts, and unexpected heroes05:40 – Why "free" email creates systemic abuse (and why volume hides the bad actors)08:06 – How threat actors bypass trust indicators11:02 – The reality check: protection isn't getting easier, it's getting more complicated19:02 – Defining non-human interactions (NHI) and bot detection24:12 – Bot detection: definitive data vs heuristics, and why false positives hurt more26:20 – Elevating verified human engagement at Beehiiv33:13 – RCS vs SMS: the pricing lever that could supercharge abuse46:14 - Global privacy legislation and the future of trustSponsor Brought to you by Hightouch - the leading composable CDP and decisioning platform trusted by brands like Domino's, Chime, and Aritzia. 90% of customers have a real use case live within their first week, delivering world-class personalization at scale. Learn more at www.hightouch.com/msom.Connect & SubscribeSubscribe to Making Sense of Martech wherever you get your podcasts. Follow us on TikTok, LinkedIn, and don't forget to like and subscribe on YouTube.