Spam traps

Bad list practices can damage your reputation

How well do you know your database? Are you vigilant at keeping it clean? Do people subscribe directly or do you regularly upload lists from internal and/or external sources? Have you ever purchased a list?

Proper list management is a critical part of any email marketing strategy. If you’re not careful, you could end up with spam traps on your list.

What are spam traps?

Spam traps are email addresses used for the purpose of attracting and identifying spam. Many spammers will troll through websites to find email addresses to add to their lists (also known as address harvesting). Organisations looking to combat spam will often hide email address on their websites to be picked up by harvesters. As these email addresses are not active, any email sent to them is considered spam.

Spam traps can be created from email addresses no longer in use or addresses that were once valid but are now dormant.

Internet service providers (ISPs), spam filter providers and other organisations use spam traps to identify spammers and block them from sending to legitimate addresses within their control.

How can spam traps get on your list?

List purchasing – this is the biggest source of spam traps. If you have ever purchased a list or use email append services, you are more than likely to have spam traps in your database.

List sabotage – if you use a single opt-in sign up form on your website, someone could purposely - or inadvertently - add spam trap addresses to your database. A simple misspelling of an email address domain could end up being a spam trap, as some organisations will use common misspellings in their spam trap addresses. List sabotage can be easily avoided by using double opt-in.

List aging – the older the addresses are on your list, the increased chance some of those addresses have been turned into spam traps. Regular list cleansing – removing old, non-active subscribers – and bounce management is the best way to prevent this from happening.

How do I get spam traps off my list?

The difficulty in getting spam traps off your list is first identifying them. Be wary of info@ or admin@ addresses and check for misspelled domains. Otherwise, the best advice for avoiding spam traps is to employ proper list hygiene techniques, such as bounce management, removing non-active recipients and staying away from purchased lists.

If you would like more information on this topic or list management in general, contact us today.