What Is a Spam Trap?
Definition
A spam trap is an email address that’s set up to catch spammers in the act. These addresses do not belong to real people and never interact with the emails they receive. Instead, they help identify and block spammy or poorly managed email lists. If you accidentally send an email to a spam trap, it is a sign that your list needs attention. Internet Service Providers (ISPs) and blocklist operators use spam traps to filter out unwanted emails and punish those who do not follow proper email practices.
Example
Let’s say you’ve bought or scraped an email list without verifying its quality. Without knowing it, some of those addresses are spam traps. When your email reaches one of these traps, it sends an alert to ISPs or anti-spam organizations, suggesting your list management is off. As a result, your reputation as a sender takes a hit, and you could end up on a blocklist, making future email campaigns much harder to reach real inboxes.
Types of Spam Traps
Different spam traps exist, each targeting specific issues with email lists. Here are the main types.
- Pristine Spam Traps: These addresses were never used by real people. They are created specifically to catch spammers. Typically, these addresses are hidden on websites, and marketers using unethical methods, like list scraping, end up emailing them. Hitting one of these traps signals poor list-building practices.
- Recycled Spam Traps: These are email addresses that were once valid but have been inactive for a long time. Email providers repurpose them to catch senders who continue emailing inactive accounts. If you hit a recycled spam trap, it usually indicates you are not cleaning your list regularly.
- Typo Spam Traps: These traps result from common typos in email addresses (e.g., typing “gamil.com” instead of “gmail.com”). ISPs often monitor these addresses to catch marketers who do not validate their recipients' emails.
How Spam Traps Affect Email Senders
Hitting spam traps can seriously harm your sender reputation. ISPs use this as a sign that you are sending emails to poor-quality addresses, which can lead them to block your emails from reaching actual, real inboxes. This decreases your deliverability rate, reducing the number of real users who see your emails. To avoid this, focus on maintaining a clean list, using double opt-ins, and regularly verifying the accuracy of your recipients' emails.
Related terms
Related articles
Verify 500 emails for free. For lists over one-million emails, we will beat the price of any competitor, guaranteed.