A Spam Trap is a monitored address created or repurposed to catch spammers in the email marketing space. There are two types of Spam Traps:
- Recycled Trap: The most common type of spam trap is created by repurposing old and disabled addresses. It is when a user has no longer engaged with their account (Microsoft average time is One Year). The account is set to a ‘Disabled/Inactive’ state by the ISP (Internet Service Provider). After some time, depending on the ISP and the type of volume still attempted to this email address (550 User Does not Exist), the ISP will then move the address to a ‘Trap State.’ This change will result in successful sends to this domain (250 Success).
- Pristine Trap: The most severe and most impactful type of trap is created by the ISP/Blacklist Provider to catch spammers. Since a Pristine Trap is created, not repurposed, the level of severity when hitting a Pristine Trap is quite high because Pristine Traps are never promoted or distributed in any way.
Who Manages the Spam Traps?
Each ISP and Blacklist provider will maintain its list of Traps (Recycled & Pristine). We traditionally find that ISPs will primarily manage and monitor recycled traps, and blacklists will create and maintain the majority of the Pristine Traps.
How does a sender end up with Spam Traps?
This is largely due to poor acquisition practices and engagement rules.
Can it impact Email Deliverability?
Yes, depending on the type of trap, it can result in poor placement and delivery rates. For our Hoteliers, the rule of thumb should be to try to hit very few Recycled Traps (Less than .1%) and no Pristine Traps.