Spam Trap Honeypot email address
Meaning
A spam trap is a secret email address used by ISPs and blocklist operators to identify spammers and senders with poor list hygiene.
Common causes
- Purchasing or scraping email lists (hits Pristine Traps).
- Failing to remove inactive subscribers or hard bounces (hits Recycled Traps).
- Users making typos during signup (hits Typo Traps).
How to fix
- Never buy, rent, or scrape email lists.
- Implement double opt-in to prevent typo traps.
- Regularly clean your list by removing subscribers who haven't opened or clicked an email in 6-12 months.
Example bounce
N/A (Spam traps deliberately do NOT bounce; they accept the mail to silently record your IP as a spammer.)
FAQ
- What is a pristine spam trap?
- An email address created solely to catch spammers. It has never been used to sign up for anything. If you email it, you scraped or bought it.
- What is a recycled spam trap?
- An old, abandoned email address that an ISP disabled (returning hard bounces) and then silently re-enabled. Senders who don't remove hard bounces will fall into this trap.