WTF Series
WTF is Spam Trap?
An email address that exists only to catch people who send to addresses they shouldn't have.
The real explanation
Spam traps are email addresses operated by blocklist operators, mailbox providers, or anti-spam organizations. They're not used by real people. If you're sending email to one, it means something is wrong with how you build or maintain your list. There are three main types, and they're not all equally dangerous.
Pristine traps are addresses that were never owned by a real person. They were created specifically to catch scrapers and list buyers. If you're hitting pristine traps, you acquired addresses you shouldn't have. Recycled traps are old addresses that were abandoned, deactivated, then reactivated as traps. If you're hitting these, you're not cleaning your list. Typo traps catch common misspellings (like gmial.com or hotmal.com) and usually indicate bad signup form validation.
The real problem: most senders never find out they're hitting traps. Blocklist operators don't tell you which addresses are traps. You just see your deliverability drop, or you end up on a blocklist, and nobody explains why. The fix is always prevention: double opt-in, regular list cleaning, and removing addresses that haven't engaged in months.
Show me an example
You imported a list from a conference three years ago. Some of those people changed jobs. Their old corporate email addresses were deactivated, sat dormant for a year, then got recycled as spam traps by the company's IT team. You're still sending to them every month. Suddenly you land on a blocklist and your deliverability tanks across the board. All because of 12 dead addresses you never cleaned out.
Who handles this?
Petros covers list hygiene.
Go deeper
Read more in the Email Almanac: Spam Trap in the Almanac
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