Automation trigger: Clicks Link in E-Mail is firing too soon

I have a main automation sending out an e-mail sequence to prospects that come in via a tagged trigger, and then once each e-mail is sent out a mini-automation runs to tell me if they have clicked in a link in that e-mail. the mini-automation just has the trigger “Clicks in an e-mail”.
This used to work fine, but now sends me an alert that the contact has clicked in the e-mail instantly the mail has gone out. Testing shows that the contacts are not even opening the mails yet the trigger is activating.
Any ideas as to why this is happening?

Can you DM me with your activehosted account url so our team can look into this?

A lot of email gateways now test your links to see if they are valid. I think this is part of their anti-spam defences. These tests can be interpreted as clicks. I think ActiveCampaign sent a note a short while ago saying they were trying to find a solution to this problem.

Interesting, Chris. thanks for that insight - it wasn’t happening as recently as two weeks ago, but perhaps it is newly instigated by the email clients we are reaching. Very much appreciate your advice.