User Groups/Promotions

I have a list of user levels (about 11) with varying acitivty point levels. Check for promotions is turned ON.

When users sign up(including a test user I created), they're automatically promoted to the highest level (50,000 actiivty points) when they only have 10-11 points.

Also, after confirming their email, they're automatically landing on their activty point page (not sure if this is related to "check for promotions" being ON).