{"id":224520,"date":"2020-04-05T10:05:39","date_gmt":"2020-04-05T04:35:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.qcsglobal.com\/?p=224520"},"modified":"2020-04-18T17:10:19","modified_gmt":"2020-04-18T11:40:19","slug":"spam-traps-what-are-they-how-to-avoid-them","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/qcsglobal.com\/blogs\/spam-traps-what-are-they-how-to-avoid-them\/","title":{"rendered":"Spam Traps: What Are They & How to Avoid Them"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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When it comes to online mail, spam traps<\/strong> can be the bane of many companies\u2019 existence. Spam traps and your spam folder certainly aren\u2019t all bad. They can help filter out the phishing scams, junk deals, and fake Nigerian princes to ensure that you\u2019re getting the mail\u2013and by extension, the information\u2013you truly need.<\/p>\n

Unfortunately, the same spam traps that help you filter your inbox are the same ones that can trip up many legitimate businesses if they\u2019re not careful. With good guidelines and execution, however, these businesses can rest assured that their emails will land in their customers\u2019 inboxes.<\/p>\n

In this article, we\u2019ll tell you more about spam traps and how to avoid them<\/strong>. Are you ready? Let\u2019s go!<\/p>\n

What is a spam trap?<\/h2>\n

You can\u2019t hate spam traps entirely\u2013they\u2019re designed to help us.<\/p>\n

Spam traps are fraud management tools that monitor email communications to identify spammers and senders with incorrect contact management practices.<\/strong> Spam traps look like legitimate email addresses, but they aren\u2019t used for two-way communication or operated by real users. These email addresses can easily be placed on mailing lists to catch and flag spam and harmful communications.<\/p>\n

Spam traps often take the form of honeypots. Honeypots are email accounts specifically and solely used to attract and detect spam emails<\/strong> and other unhelpful or malicious communications, as well as their original sender\u2019s email address. When a phisher or spammer attempts to send bad emails to a honeypot account, an automated system can take note of the spam sender\u2019s details and make a record of the trap.<\/p>\n

\"Spam<\/figure>\n

Types of spam traps<\/h2>\n

There are different types of spam traps you should be aware of. Some of the most common ones include:<\/p>\n

Pristine spam traps<\/h3>\n

Pristine traps, or honeypots<\/strong>, are brand-new email addresses that are created by internet service providers and other groups, such as blacklist organizations, who are interested in tracking spam.<\/p>\n

Since these addresses have never been used, they have no history or reputation associated with them, and are good for generating fresh spam reports<\/strong>. Businesses could hit pristine spam traps by using unverified third party email lists and using bots to scrape email addresses from the web.<\/p>\n

Recycled domain spam traps<\/h3>\n

A domain that is no longer used by a business or individual<\/strong> (for example, recycleddomaintraps.net) may be purchased by a spam trap owner and secretly reactivated to collect mail. The owner can then see who is sending email to any addresses of that domain even after the domain is supposedly no longer live.<\/p>\n

Recycled address spam traps<\/h3>\n

These are similar to the above recycled domain spam traps. If someone signs up to receive a newsletter, the newsletter isn\u2019t spam. However, if that subscriber doesn\u2019t log into their email account for two or three years after subscribing, the email provider may decide to shut down the account for a period of time due to inactivity.<\/p>\n

If this account is reopened by the provider<\/strong> to track which emails are being sent to it, and the newsletter is still being received, this tells the provider that the newsletter sender never checked to see which of its emails were actually \u201cwanted\u201d (i.e. opened or engaged with). Thus, the newsletter will likely begin to be marked as spam.<\/p>\n

This is why it is important to regularly update your mailing list and get rid of unresponsive addresses and domains.<\/p>\n

Invalid email traps<\/h3>\n

These traps are email addresses that differ slightly from real email addresses<\/strong> due to typos. For example, an email address like regularguy@gmail.com could become regularguy@gnail.com or regularguy@gmaii.com in a typo spam trap.<\/p>\n

Because these traps are generally set off by simple sender typos, the consequences for getting caught in one are usually either very light or nonexistent\u2013as long as you don\u2019t keep spamming the same \u201cwrong\u201d addresses.<\/p>\n

How can spam traps be bad for business?<\/h2>\n

If you\u2019re part of a legitimate business hoping to have an engaged, active emailing list, you should always be aware of potential spam traps<\/strong>, and of being caught by one (or more).<\/p>\n

Remember those consequences we mentioned earlier? Well, if you\u2019re flagged by a spam trap, some of the consequences you could be facing include:<\/p>\n