How to Burn Your Reputation with Spam Traps

Sending emails to spam traps is one of the quickest ways to damage your sender reputation. It can happen easily if you’re not careful, and the consequences can be severe—resulting in blocked emails, blacklists, and a hit to your credibility. So, how do you avoid this?

It starts with understanding what spam traps are, how they work, and why sending them repeatedly is a surefire way to cause harm. Let’s take a closer look at what they are, how they can affect your campaigns, and, most importantly, how to steer clear of them.

What Are Spam Traps?

Spam traps are email addresses created to catch senders who don’t follow best practices. These addresses don’t sign up for newsletters or interact with emails. They’re designed to receive emails without engaging, but they look like regular email addresses. Some traps are even old addresses recycled by ISPs. With millions of spam traps in use, no service can guarantee they can clean all of them from your list—so it’s critical to maintain proper list hygiene to avoid them.

What Kind of Traps Are There?

There are two main types of spam traps: Recycled and Pristine.

Recycled traps

Recycled spam traps are previously active email addresses that were abandoned by users. After a long period of inactivity, these addresses get converted into traps. Think of that quirky email address you had in college—funny at the time, but one you wouldn’t want on your job application. If left unused, that address could eventually become a recycled spam trap.

Pristine traps

Pristine spam traps, also known as honey pots, are specifically created to catch senders using poor email practices. These addresses have never been used by a real person. Sometimes they’re hidden on obscure web pages or even embedded in a website’s source code, where regular users wouldn’t normally come across them. Other times, they exist with no online references at all, just waiting to receive emails from senders who aren’t following best practices.

Who Creates These Spam Traps?

Spam traps are created to identify good senders from bad and catch those who fall into gray areas. Different operators use them for various purposes. Mailbox providers like Microsoft and Comcast rely on spam traps to ensure their users receive only the emails they want. Companies offering spam protection, such as Barracuda, use them to enhance their filtering processes. Anti-spam organizations like SpamHaus, Project Honey Pot, and SpamCop also use these traps to reduce global spam and create a cleaner email ecosystem.

How Do Spam Traps Work?

Spam traps are fairly simple—they act like regular email addresses, accepting mail just like any other inbox. When a mailbox provider converts old addresses into recycled spam traps, those addresses go through an invalidation period, usually lasting 6 months to a year. During this time, any emails sent to the address will bounce back with an “invalid” code, signaling that it’s no longer active. Most email platforms, including Mapp, will automatically suppress that address from future sends, recognizing it as invalid. Once the invalidation period ends, the address will start receiving emails again, but without bouncing. This signals to spam trap operators that senders contacting this address are using outdated or unengaged lists and are not following best practices.

Pristine traps work similarly, but since they were never used by a person, there’s no invalidation period. They begin receiving mail immediately after setup. These traps highlight senders who may be using purchased, rented, or harvested lists rather than building organically. Either way, sending to spam traps reveals lapses in list hygiene and adherence to best practices, and can harm your email reputation.

What Happens When I Hit A Trap?

Hitting a spam trap is a bit like playing Russian Roulette. The impact can range from minimal to severe, depending on the trap provider. In some cases, you might not notice any immediate effect, while in others, your emails could be blocked by major mailbox providers. However, regardless of where you hit the traps, it gives you some insight into how “clean” your data is. Unfortunately, you can’t tell ahead of time how many traps you’re going to hit or know the impact. But if you hit a big one, you will notice, and your Email Service Provider might give you a heads up, too.

The image below shows actual data from a client hitting spam traps. Every time they hit traps, the amount of filtered mail (mail not making it to the inbox) goes up in relation. When the traps decrease, so does the amount of filtering. This would be more middle-of-the-road or average impact from spam traps, meaning it can get much worse:

It Can Get Worse. Wait, What?

Keep in mind that acquiring email lists through methods such as purchasing, renting, or scraping may violate the Terms of Service or Acceptable Use Policy of your provider. In some regions, these practices might even breach local laws. Often, the issue isn’t merely the acquisition of these lists, but rather the lack of explicit consent which can lead to significant issues if consent is later requested. It’s crucial to familiarize yourself with these rules and regulations, as violations could result in being banned from a platform or facing hefty fines. So, as the saying goes, ‘So you’re telling me there’s a chance!’—yes, albeit a small one.

Uh-oh! I Have Them, How Do I Get Rid Of Them?

It’s okay, it happens. Think of removing spam traps like using the ‘Undo’ feature in Microsoft Office. Start by retracing your steps to determine when the traps appeared and which list acquisitions occurred around that time. This issue can often be traced back to actions like importing an outdated ‘hot subscribers’ list found on the network or acquiring a list that seemed like a good deal at the time (remember, no judging allowed). Or, maybe an accidental email blast was sent to your entire database instead of just your active and engaged users.

To fix this, you need to ditch the ‘hot subscribers’ list—it’s not hot anymore and will only jeopardize your reputation and relationships with mailbox providers. Label it as ‘hot water subscribers’ to remind yourself of the risks. If you accidentally emailed everyone, ensure it doesn’t happen again. While one-time accidents can usually be resolved quickly, they might still cause a temporary sting.

Have you altered your sign-up process? Maybe you disabled Double/Confirmed Opt-In under management’s pressure to boost email captures at any cost. While reducing sign-up barriers can accelerate list growth, it often leads to more invalid addresses and a higher likelihood of capturing spam traps, which ultimately harms deliverability. Additionally, using Single Opt-In complicates proving explicit consent. Depending on your region, failing to demonstrate this consent when required can lead to severe legal consequences. A simple solution is to reactivate Double/Confirmed Opt-In to enhance list integrity and compliance.

I Have Tried Everything And They’re Still There!

If you’re still encountering spam traps regularly despite trying everything and only sending emails to active and engaged users, you might just need to wait it out. It’s possible that a nefarious individual has knowingly added trap addresses to your list. Alternatively, an optimist might suggest that someone simply mistyped their email address, and that typo turned out to be a spam trap. Interestingly, some traps are designed to capture such typos in commonly used domain names. Unfortunately, without employing a double opt-in or confirmed opt-in process, these addresses end up in your list.

In this situation, it’s best to wait it out.

As mentioned previously, traps typically don’t engage with messages. However, there is a strategy to help. Moving forward, we recommend that you focus on sending emails only to subscribers who have opened and engaged with previous messages. By adhering to this method, spam traps, which do not engage, will naturally fall outside your active parameters, and you should see the number of traps decrease. Simply continue targeting your active and engaged users, and your email environment should soon stabilize. It’s reassuring to know that focusing on subscribers who actively use and benefit from your emails can also enhance your own results. It’s a win-win scenario!

How Can I Prevent Getting Spam Traps Going Forward?

To prevent spam traps from infiltrating your list in the first place, you may want to implement some of these measures. Some are simpler than others, but any of these steps can help reduce the likelihood of traps being added to your lists:

1. Honor Invalid/Hard Bounces and Opt-Outs: Most Email Service Providers(ESPs) automatically manage this, but it’s best to verify.
2. Double or Confirmed Opt-In: This requires users to confirm their subscription by clicking a link sent via email after signing up. If they don’t complete this step, they won't be added to your list. Ideally, make this your default setting.
3. Captcha/ReCaptcha: This tool requires users to enter a sequence of characters, helping to prevent automated sign-ups from untrustworthy sources.
4. Organic Growth: Focus on growing your lists through your own marketing efforts. This ensures that your subscribers are genuinely interested in your brand.
5. Avoid Buying/Renting/Scraping Lists: It’s best to avoid these as you can't be sure of their origins or how they were compiled. What you don’t know could hurt you, not to mention how many others might have the same list.
6. Use a List Validation Service: These services help prevent typos or invalid addresses from being added to your list during sign-up.
7. Super Secret Spam Trap Busting Strategy: Engage only with users who have opened and interacted with your messages within a reasonable timeframe, such as the last 180 days.

If you would would rather watch a video discussing spam traps, here’s a breakdown starring our own Deliverability Expert, Florian Vierke.