Spam Trap! How to avoid them?

This article comes from the Litmus blog, available here English version. Litmus allows you to visualise how your message will render across more than 40 email clients and mobile devices. Mailissimo integrates this functionality to allow you to validate your message before sending it.

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20% des emails envoyés n’arrivent pas dans la boîte de réception de vos destinataires.

You spend time growing your subscriber list, creating high-performing campaigns and writing impactful subject lines, and despite all your efforts, some of your contacts never see your emails.

Deliverability is one of the most critical challenges email marketers face. Many factors influence your deliverability, and among them, spam traps are one of the most detrimental and misunderstood.

What is a «spam trap»?

Trap addresses are used by email providers («webmail») and blacklists to track down bad senders. But not only that. Legitimate senders who don't pay attention to their data hygiene or have poor acquisition policies can also be trapped.

A trap address is, or rather was, a valid address but is not/no longer used as a means of communication. It exists solely to identify spammers and senders not using clean lists.

Why should I care about «spam traps»?

You may not know it, but there's a good chance one of your messages has already landed in a honeypot address. Just one on your mailing list can negatively impact your campaign's deliverability to your recipients' inboxes.

Sending an email to a "trap address" indicates either poor collection practices or poor hygiene of your contact list. For anti-spam tools and email providers, you are a spammer, negatively impacting your sender reputation. Senders with a poor reputation do not reach their recipients' inboxes.

How to eradicate «spam traps» from my lists?

To eradicate a trap address, you first need to know how to identify the different types. Laura Atkins, deliverability expert and owner of the blog «Word to the Wise», lists the different categories of trap addresses.

Let's focus on the most common trap addresses:

• «Spam» email addresses "sprinkled across the web" are published on public websites but are hidden from users. They are collected by bots looking for anything that could be an email address.
• «Recycled» trap addresses were created by real users and then abandoned. After a certain period, they were converted into traps by email providers.

If an email address is no longer in use, email providers will deactivate it after a certain period.

If an email arrives at this address, a «HARD BOUNCE» reply («NPAI» = no longer lives at the indicated address) is sent back to inform the sender that they can/should remove this address from their list. Savvy senders honour this request and disable bad addresses. However, some ignore this process and continue to work these bad addresses.

In response to these malicious or ignorant senders, email providers convert abandoned addresses into trap addresses. After some time, these addresses no longer return a «HARD BOUNCE» code and become active traps that denounce all senders who send emails.

Keeping «HARD BOUNCE» addresses active is the best way to get trap addresses. Be very careful to correctly deactivate «HARD BOUNCE» addresses so as not to accidentally continue sending them emails.

You can also get trap addresses if you don't regularly work on your database. If you don't work on your list for a while, some addresses may be converted into traps.

There are many other ways to obtain trap addresses. For example, some people may fill out a form with an incorrect address to avoid being contacted, or others may misspell their email address.

HOW TO KNOW IF MY DATABASE CONTAINS A «SPAM TRAP»?

Trap addresses were all once valid addresses, which makes them difficult to identify. However, there are several tools that assess sender reputation and indicate if trap addresses have been detected. The «SNDS» (Smart Data Network Service) indicates the trap addresses of the Microsoft network and SignalSpam indicate those of the Orange network.

How to eliminate a «spam trap»?

Trap addresses are used to identify bad senders, so logically no public list reveals these addresses.

The only way to find and eliminate a trap address is to continuously clean your list.

The trap addresses seem valid but do not react like an engaged recipient. No opens or clicks are coming from any of them. Therefore, it is sufficient to remove inactive addresses from your list to clean it.

Generally, trap addresses appear in new sign-ups or among your oldest contacts.

Tips for managing your new sign-ups

• Never buy a list of unknown contacts.
• Use «double opt-in» to validate new subscribers.
• Check the new addresses

Tips for managing your past subscribers

• Work your list frequently
• Treat your inactive accounts
• Remove the «HARD BOUNCE»
• Use the SNDS / SignalSpam reports