If there’s one thing that is true with the internet, it’s that spam will always be present. Spam can be found so long as people continue to browse online.
In fact, spam has become such a nuisance that one report in 2019 found that out of 11,113,227 emails, 8,678,838 of those were identified as spam.
Another report by Cisco Talos Intelligence Group, a well-known threat intelligence team made up of world-class researchers and analysts, claims that only 16.05% of emails sent daily are legitimate while 83.95% of them are spam. Their October account mentioned that 17.69 billion authentic messages are sent each day while 94.02 billion are spam, showing a 6% volume increase from the previous month.
With spam constantly and increasingly being more prevalent, anti-spam organizations have ramped up their efforts in counteracting unwanted emails. One of their methods in fighting spam is by using spamtraps.
What Is a Spamtrap?
Spam traps are email addresses that are set up and designed as bait for spammers. A spamtrap, also known as a honeypot, will show up just like a standard email address except that it’s not owned or operated by a real person.
Such email addresses are also not directly shown on any public website so that legitimate email senders and users don’t accidentally use them.
Since these spamtraps don’t belong to specific individuals, this means that they shouldn’t be found in mailing lists in the first place as these addresses can never have opted-in to receive emails from senders. Anti-spam organizations create these addresses in this manner to catch, identify, and label a sender as a spammer.
A spam trap email address can be owned and maintained by the following organizations:
- Blacklist entities: Domain blacklisting service providers are responsible for most of the spam traps present today. These entities distribute these addresses in discreet locations throughout the internet to lure and flag spammers. Some examples of popular blacklist providers are Spamhaus, Spamcop, and Barracuda.
- Internet service providers (ISPs): Internet service providers, also known as inbox providers in the email marketing world, create and maintain their own sets of spamtraps. Being flagged by one of these mailbox providers is worse than being identified by a blacklist since you can have your sending domain and IP address permanently banned from reaching their users. Major email providers include Gmail, AOL, and Yahoo.
- Anti-spam agencies: Anti-spam organizations are made up of non-profit firms, companies, and even casual groups. Their sole objective is to fight spam and make the internet a safer place for legitimate email senders and recipients.
How Can a Spamtrap End Up In My Lists?
Spam traps are harmful to the sender reputation of email marketers which is why they should be avoided at all costs. So how does a spamtrap find itself in your mailing list?
Here are the five most common reasons:
When You Scrape Email Addresses
Scraping email addresses is the act of acquiring addresses that have been shown publicly on the internet. An application is often used to obtain these emails and is considered illegal in many countries.
Many anti-spam organizations post their own spamtrap addresses throughout the Web to catch senders who practice scraping.
When You Buy Your Email Lists
Most email marketers know that purchasing mailing lists is a bad practice simply because you don’t know for sure what you’ll be getting. This is true especially since you can obtain spam traps as part of these lists.
Since you don’t know the contacts in these lists and they haven’t opted-in to your emails, you will most likely receive spam complaints from them. Being flagged as spam by users will significantly harm your sender reputation.
When You Follow Bad Email Practices
Failing to engage your contacts through your email marketing campaigns will generally lead to a stale mailing list. Many email addresses will become inactive as time goes by and are removed from public use because they are no longer valid.
These old email addresses are often converted by anti-spam organizations as spam traps. When you send to your stagnant lists, there’s a high probability that one of your contacts is already a spamtrap.
When You Mistakenly Type the Wrong Address
Another common reason why spam traps can appear in your email lists is that you accidentally typed the wrong address when it was added. You can still be mistakenly flagged as a spammer when you unintentionally type “@yaho.com” instead of “@yahoo.com,” for instance.
When Your Competitors Poison Your Mailing List
Competition is common among marketers and some can become desperate enough to try and introduce spam traps into your email lists. There are many ways this can happen so it’s best to keep an eye out for these malicious actions.
How Can I Identify a Spamtrap On My Mail Lists?
Identifying spamtraps is no easy feat especially since many of them look just like valid email addresses that can be safely interacted with. However, there is a common method that you can follow to avoid spamtraps.
Pinpointing pristine spam traps based on user engagement is a highly effective approach that can help you differentiate real users from those that aren’t. Email addresses that don’t engage with emails by opening, clicking, or responding are some signs that they could be traps.
Besides engagement, here are a few more email patterns to consider in identifying spam traps:
- Fake email addresses: A contact that has an invalid email address, such as “[email protected]” is a common indication of a spam trap. Email list providers and other anti-spam agencies can quickly create these addresses and send them out to catch spammers. They often use a program so that they can automatically generate these fake email accounts.
- Dormant email addresses: As mentioned above, email addresses will no longer be used by some people after a time. You can be flagged as a spammer when you send to these addresses especially when they have already been converted as spamtraps. Noting addresses that haven’t engaged with your email campaign for some time is one way of identifying spam traps.
- Hard bounces: Sending an email that has hard bounced is another way to identify a spam trap. This is because recycled spam traps will usually result in a hard bounce upon sending an email to these addresses.
- Typographical error: Typing the wrong email address could result in you snagging a spam trap. When this happens, check your mailing list’s history and see if you have mistakenly made a typo when adding an email address.
Removing Spamtraps
You already know the consequences of sending emails to spam traps. Since these traps are designed to lure potential spammers, you won’t see a public list of these addresses that can make removing these emails easier for you.
One way you can find and remove spamtraps is by analyzing the overall quality of your email list.
Knowing that a spam trap isn’t owned and operated by a real individual, they normally don’t act like an engaged user. As stated above, spam traps won’t click or open your emails so they generally won’t show up in your engagement metrics.
Actively assessing and cleaning your mailing lists is a great way of getting rid of potential spam traps. Doing so also helps ensure that the lists of your email campaigns are composed of real people who have opted for your emails.
Yet even if you have identified and removed the offending emails from your list, this is only the beginning. You haven’t yet resolved the root problem, which is understanding how they got into your list and how you can change your strategy to avoid spamtraps.
How to Avoid Spamtraps
Hitting a spamtrap and being flagged by an anti-spam organization is extremely unfavorable for you as an email marketer. That’s why it’s imperative that you learn how to avoid spamtraps in the first place.
Here are the best email practices to follow that will help you steer clear of these traps:
Don’t Purchase an Email List
Buying an email list means that you don’t know the contacts to whom you will be sending emails. You’re also unsure whether the third-party provider that has sold you the list followed proper email collection protocols. There’s a high probability that you’ll snag a spam trap when you buy your mailing lists.
Additionally, you might also come across other addresses that put your email marketing campaigns at risk. For instance, role-based, catch-all, and disposable email addresses aren’t beneficial to your email campaign and will not increase your deliverability metrics.
Buying email lists also means that you haven’t asked for permission from the people you plan to send messages to, which is a critical rule in email marketing. Breaking this rule will often result in your IP address or domain address receiving a high number of spam complaints, thereby affecting your sender reputation.
Fortunately, you can use an email validation service to check an email list you’ve already bought to help identify aspects such as inactive emails and potential spamtraps.
Incorporate Double Opt-In
One of the best methods in ensuring that a real human being is on the other end of an email address is to use double opt-in. With double opt-in, you’ll essentially be sending follow-up messages that will require a person to confirm on their end. After confirmation, the user is added to your mailing list, resulting in a higher potential for engagement.
Apart from that, using double opt-in also lets you clean your lists of invalid and misspelled addresses since people will have to receive the confirmation first before they can proceed. Although it takes an extra step for both you and a potential subscriber, double opt-in is an extremely important line of defense you can employ for your mailing lists.
Validate Recently Added Contacts
Although applying a double opt-in approach in your email marketing campaign helps minimize the risk of getting spam traps, it’s not sufficient on its own. You can add an additional layer to your defense by using a service that validates new email addresses.
There are email validation APIs available that can help safeguard you from faulty contact data. These programs can reject any form of abuse or misspelled addresses and even identify disposable emails that can damage your email deliverability.
Check Your Sender Reputation
Your sender reputation plays an essential role in ensuring that your messages arrive at their target inboxes. Email providers determine your sending reputation based on several metrics. These metrics can include how often your emails have received spam complaints or been flagged as spam.
Checking your reputation can help you tell if you’ve been snagging any spam traps along the way.
Conclusion
Spam traps are email addresses that should not be a part of your mailing list. Not only do they harm your sender reputation but you can also be permanently banned from sending emails from people using a specific email service provider.
There are various types of spam traps present today and it’s important to know how you can identify and avoid them. This is especially true when you can still accidentally get flagged as a spammer even when you send a well-intentioned email.
If you already suspect your contact lists to contain spam traps, you can still use an email validation tool to help you identify and remove them. Some of these programs can also help you pinpoint disposable email addresses that can harm your deliverability in the long run.
Reading this guide thoroughly and understanding all of the tips provided should help you avoid spamtraps and maintain a positive sender reputation.
