Spamtraps: The Number One Threat to Your Email Deliverability

Out of the 300 billion emails sent globally every day, 80% to 90% are spam. To tackle this issue, email providers and other organisations have implemented trap email addresses.

You might even have some in your database without knowing it. However, the presence of spamtraps is one of the most significant factors affecting the deliverability of your emails.

But what exactly is a spamtrap? Why does it impact your deliverability? And how can you avoid it?

Béranger Mercier, Deliverability Manager at ShopiMind, answers all your questions and shares his top expert tips.

What is a spamtrap and how does it catch your emails?

Literally translated, a spamtrap is a “spam trap”. In short, it’s the kind of email address you should definitely avoid!

They are created or acquired by email providers (Gmail, Outlook, Orange, etc.) or blacklist organisations (Spamhaus, SpamCop, etc.).

These organisations use spamtraps to fight against spammers and to prevent senders who don’t follow best practices in contact management.

Spamtrap addresses often look like real email addresses, making them almost impossible to spot in your database.

The 3 Types of Email Spamtraps

Recycled Addresses

These are old opt-in email addresses that once existed but have since been abandoned by their users.

After a long period of inactivity, these addresses are deactivated by email providers and then recycled as spamtraps to see if senders still target these old, inactive addresses.

Invalid Addresses

These are addresses with at least one typo in the domain after the @. Examples include gnail.com instead of gmail.com, htmail.fr instead of hotmail.fr, or yaho.cim instead of yahoo.com.

They are usually the result of a typo, whether intentional or accidental, made by users when signing up. As such, email providers and blacklist organisations use them to check the quality of your address collection.

Pristine Spamtraps

These are brand-new addresses created from scratch by email providers or blacklist organisations exclusively as spamtraps.

They do not belong to any real user and should never receive legitimate emails.

They are usually posted (but hidden) on public websites, and are collected by spambots that scan web pages for email addresses.

How Do Spamtraps Affect Your Deliverability?

If you regularly send emails to spamtrap addresses, more and more of your emails will land in the spam folder before being completely blocked. You’ll soon notice a sharp fall in your campaign performance.

Depending on the type of spamtrap you hit, your sending domain and IP address can get blacklisted. As a result, your reputation can quickly drop with both email providers and blacklist organisations.

Pristine spamtraps are especially dangerous and can get you blacklisted after just one message! No email provider wants the poor reputation of allowing bulk senders who harvest addresses without user consent.

Recycled and invalid address spamtraps are less critical. The former are used to monitor your list’s activity; the latter, to assess the quality of your address collection.

How Can You Tell If Your Database Contains Spamtraps?

It’s difficult, if not impossible, to identify a spamtrap address in a database. Especially when it comes to recycled addresses, which once existed, and pristine spamtraps, which are created to resemble real ones.

However, for invalid addresses, you can use filters to separate safe domains (like “gmail.com” or “orange.fr”) from potential spamtraps.

Manual checking remains necessary to avoid excluding prospects who use their own company domains (like “companyname.com” or “association-name.fr”) from your list.

Therefore, this method is best avoided for B2B, where most prospects use professional emails. It’s more suitable for B2C e-commerce businesses with moderate list turnover.

How to Avoid Spamtraps

Follow these best practices to avoid hitting spamtraps in your mailings.

Never Buy Contact Lists

When you purchase a list, you have no idea if the email addresses were collected properly. There is a very high risk that you’re buying spamtraps. Don’t take the risk.

Target Only Your Most Engaged Contacts

Inactive subscribers are worthless to your campaigns, and some of those addresses may end up as spamtraps. We recommend only targeting contacts who interacted (opened or clicked) in the last 6 months if you regularly encounter spamtraps.

Validate Your New Email Addresses

Use an email validation tool on your signup page to catch typos and fake or non-existent email addresses before they reach your mailing list.

Use Secure Forms with Captcha

By securing your signup form with a captcha, you’ll better control your subscriber lists. You can prevent automated bot signups and so, potentially, the addition of spamtraps.

Implement Double Opt-in

Double opt-in is when you ask your customer or newsletter subscriber to confirm their email address by clicking a link sent automatically after they submit your signup form.

Using this, you guarantee an email address belongs to a real person.

It’s one of the most effective ways to identify typos and fake emails that could be spamtraps. Plus, it ensures you have a community of subscribers willing to engage, making your audience more involved and relevant for future campaigns.

ShopiMind: Your Deliverability Ally

Since its creation, ShopiMind has always focused on three main goals: deliverability, conversion, and loyalty. To reach the first goal and boost your deliverability (and KPIs), ShopiMind has implemented a number of solutions.

The Invalid Address List

For added security, our sending servers automatically filter and block a large number of invalid addresses (gnail.com, htmail.fr, yaho.cim, etc.). We update our reference list regularly.

Quarantine Process

We also quarantine invalid addresses that generate hardbounces to reduce the risk of recycled address spamtraps.

However, remember: no tool, not even ShopiMind, can detect every pristine spamtrap! ShopiMind uses extensive lists, but these can never be fully exhaustive due to the number of pristine spamtraps created daily.

The best way to protect your database is to stay vigilant during address collection, as pristine spamtraps can be particularly harmful to your deliverability.

Dedicated Experts

The ShopiMind Deliverability Team is highly qualified and puts its expertise first and foremost at the service of our customers.

Please note, they are in permanent contact with our technical team to develop optimised infrastructure. This is the result of constant monitoring regarding ever-evolving email provider requirements.

Conclusion

Perfect your address collection process and automate regular list cleaning.

A small, high-quality list of engaged customers is far more valuable than a huge list filled with spamtraps!

Finally, don’t confuse deliverability with engagement. To get the return on investment you’re looking for, you also need to adjust your marketing pressure and personalise your emails with good segmentation. That’s how you build trust and keep your customers coming back.

The Author

As Deliverability Manager at ShopiMind, Béranger has a background in web development. He started out as an email developer and quickly specialised in deliverability.

For over 8 years, he has honed his expertise and deepened his understanding of email marketing filtering rules.

His main focuses are to guide you through email marketing best practices and to optimise technical infrastructure to ensure the highest possible deliverability.

Glossary

Email Provider: A type of email host whose servers enable users to send, receive, accept, and store emails from other organisations or individuals.

Hardbounce : An email returned to sender due to a permanent error, most often an invalid address.

IP: The identification number assigned to each device connected to a network using the Internet protocol. Here, we are referring to the IP address used to send your newsletters and mailings.

Blacklist organisations : Also called RBL (Real-time Blackhole List) or DNSBL (DNS blacklist). These are lists of IP addresses or domains that flag at-risk mail servers.

Spambot: An automated software program (“bot”) designed to collect email addresses and/or send them unsolicited emails (“spam”).