Can a bot 'click' a JavaScript link on a web page?

Question

We have a platform that sends survey emails - the link in the email takes the user to a web page that asks a series of questions.

To answer the question, the user clicks the answer they select - this uses a JavaScript onclick to register the answer.

We're aware that some security software (like Barracuda) follows links in emails to determine if the end point is a risk, but is there any way that this can trigger the onclick actions on the page?

If so, is there any way to distinguish between bots & users?

I have considered adding a delay to the page so that answers can only be registered x seconds after the page loads, but this seems a poor way to fix this.

Answer 1

Bots can 100% navigate/click through webpages.

The way to do this would be to get a reference to an HTML element, and then call the .click() method on the element.

Likely the best way you can defeat this is by adding a CAPTCHA or other human verification service to the start of your survey.

References: http://www.captcha.net/