{"id":5788,"date":"2023-11-30T10:00:00","date_gmt":"2023-11-30T15:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.litmus.com\/blog\/a-guide-to-spam-traps-and-how-to-avoid-them\/"},"modified":"2025-12-12T09:24:07","modified_gmt":"2025-12-12T14:24:07","slug":"a-guide-to-spam-traps-and-how-to-avoid-them","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.litmus.com\/blog\/a-guide-to-spam-traps-and-how-to-avoid-them","title":{"rendered":"The Ultimate Spam Trap Survival Guide: How to Stay Out of Spam"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n\t<div id=\"simple-text-block-block_ea329240afdc15427a671991bc06200b\" class=\"block-simple-text-block alignfull \" style=\"background-color:\">\n  <div class=\"container\">\n  \t<div class=\"row\">\n  \t\t<div class=\"col\">\n  \t\t\t<div class=\"copy\">\n  \t\t\t\t<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Email geeks, we see all the hard work you put into your email marketing campaigns. Once you have a great idea, there\u2019s the copywriting, the design work, the coding, the endless back-and-forth editing, and then finally, the operational side of pulling lists or behavioral triggers and actually pressing, \u201cSend.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It\u2019s a lot of work. Yet your beautiful email campaign may never actually reach the inbox. In fact, <\/span><a rel=\"noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/www.litmus.com\/spam-filter-tests\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">70% of emails show at least one spam-related issue that could keep them from reaching the inbox.<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> \ud83d\ude2d<\/span><\/p>\n<a rel=\"noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/www.litmus.com\/blog\/why-email-deliverability-matters\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Email deliverability<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> is a complicated, technical beast. While there are a few best practices that are tried-and-true to improve your deliverability (please, please don\u2019t buy an email list!) it can be difficult to know what went wrong. While many factors affect your deliverability, spam traps are one of the biggest and most misunderstood of them all.<\/span><\/p>\n<h2><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">What is a spam trap?<\/span><\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Spam traps are commonly used by inbox providers and blocklist providers to catch malicious senders, but quite often, legitimate senders with poor data hygiene or acquisition practices end up on the radar as well.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">A spam trap looks like a real email address, but it doesn\u2019t belong to a real person nor is it used for any kind of communication. Its only purpose is to identify spammers and senders not utilizing proper list hygiene.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n\n<div class=\"container pt-3 pb-5\">\n\t<div class=\"row blog-cta-blue  p-4\">\n\t\t<div class=\"col-12 mx-auto\">\n\t\t\t<div class=\"row d-flex align-items-center\">\n\t\t\t<div class=\"col-lg-6 col-12\">\n\t\t\t\t<p class=\"bold fs-4\">Unlock 2026 inbox benchmarks now<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t<p>Download Validity\u2019s 2026 Email Deliverability Benchmark Report and learn how your inbox placement compares before your next send.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t<button class=\"button-blue arrow\"><a rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.validity.com\/resource-center\/2026-email-deliverability-benchmark-report\/\" class=\"text-white text-decoration-none\">Get the report<\/a><\/button>\n\t\t\t<\/div><!--col-6-->\n\t\t\t<div class=\"col-6 d-none d-lg-block\">\n\t\t\t\t<img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.litmus.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/blog-cta-12172024.svg\" width=\"208\" height=\"171\" alt=\"\">\n\t\t\t<\/div><!--col-6-->\n\t\t\t<\/div> <!--row-->\n\t\t<\/div><!--col-12-->\n\t<\/div><!--row-->\n<\/div><!--container-->\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\n  \t\t\t<\/div>\n  \t\t<\/div>\n  \t<\/div>\n  <\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n\n\t<div id=\"simple-text-block-block_72db6abd81b27c2f76d597a49b35584b\" class=\"block-simple-text-block alignfull \" style=\"background-color:\">\n  <div class=\"container\">\n  \t<div class=\"row\">\n  \t\t<div class=\"col\">\n  \t\t\t<div class=\"copy\">\n  \t\t\t\t<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h2><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Why should you care about spam traps?<\/span><\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">If you\u2019re thinking, \u201cI\u2019m not a spammer, so I don\u2019t have to worry about it,\u201d hold up. \ud83d\udd90\ufe0f<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">You might already send email to spam traps\u2026and not even know about it. Depending on the type of trap, having even one spam trap on your mailing list can significantly impact your ability to get your emails into the inboxes of your subscribers. We\u2019ll talk more about the different kinds of traps in a moment.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The bottom line is: If you\u2019re sending emails to spam traps, anti-spam organizations and inbox providers think you\u2019re a spammer. It doesn\u2019t matter whether you really are or not.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">That\u2019s because it\u2019s considered an indicator that you\u2019ve used bad practices to collect email addresses\u2014or at the very least, you didn\u2019t do a good job of keeping your list clean. This could cause your IP address or your domain to be list denied and damage your <\/span><a rel=\"noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/www.litmus.com\/blog\/how-to-fix-email-reputation\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">sender reputation<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">. All this means if you\u2019re sending emails inadvertently to spam traps, your emails may not be delivered to subscribers\u2019 inboxes.<\/span><\/p>\n<h2><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The 3 types of spam traps you need to worry about\u00a0<\/span><\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Not all spam traps are created equal. While triggering any of these spam traps will impact your deliverability, some cause more damage than others. You\u2019ll want to watch out for:<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><b>Pristine traps<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> are email addresses that are published on public websites, but hidden so a normal user would never see them. The only people who find and send to those addresses are the people who use bad collection processes, like scraping the web for everything that looks like an email address. If you obtained addresses by scraping them from web pages\u2014or bought a list, which often include scraped email addresses\u2014you may have picked up a pristine spam trap.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><b>Recycled traps<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> are email addresses that were used by real people in the past, became abandoned, and at some point were converted into a trap by the inbox provider. When an email is not used anymore, inbox providers will deactivate it after a certain time. Whenever someone sends an email to this address, the inbox provider returns a hard bounce, which is a signal to the sender to please remove this email address from the list. <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Responsible <\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">senders honor this request and delete bouncing addresses, but some folks ignore this protocol and continue to email these addresses. Turning abandoned email addresses into spam traps is the ISP\u2019s response to irresponsible senders. After some time, the abandoned address won\u2019t return a hard bounce anymore\u2014but is now an active spam trap that marks everyone sending emails to it as a misbehaving sender.<\/span><\/li>\n<li aria-level=\"1\"><b>Invalid email addresses <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">can also be used by ISPs as spam traps. This is most commonly done with email addresses that have typos. Think common typos like \u201cgnail,\u201d instead of Gmail or \u201cyaho,\u201d instead of Yahoo. While misspelled domain names (the section of the email address after the @) are more common for spam traps, you can also get caught with a misspelled username (the section of the email address before the @). Are some of these typos <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">just <\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">typos? Of course. This happens all the time. But since they\u2019re invalid email addresses, they should be cleaned off your list regardless.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">These are the most common spam traps out there, though there are more. What do all three have in common though? <\/span><b>Issues with your email list.<\/b><\/p>\n<h2><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">5 ways to avoid spam traps<\/span><\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The answer to avoiding spam traps lies in your email list hygiene.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Spam traps are designed to identify senders with irresponsible list-building techniques, so you won\u2019t find a public list of traps that you can delete from your list to solve the problem.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The only way of finding and deleting them is to take a close look at your list quality in general. Here are a few ways you can avoid spam traps in the future:<\/span><\/p>\n<h3><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">1. Manage your inactive subscribers<\/span><\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Spam traps don\u2019t belong to real people, so they typically won\u2019t behave like an engaged subscriber. Most spam traps won\u2019t show engagement like clicks or opens. If you <\/span><a rel=\"noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/litmus.com\/blog\/how-to-manage-the-3-kinds-of-inactive-email-subscribers\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">actively manage your inactive subscribers<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, you\u2019ll likely get rid of your spam traps, too. Chronically inactive subscribers aren\u2019t of any value to your campaigns and some of these addresses are at risk of being converted into dead address spam traps.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Be wary of holding onto these addresses for too long.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In fact, we recommend running a campaign that asks existing inactive subscribers to reconfirm their interest in your messages is another strategy to separate engaged subscribers from those who don\u2019t confirm (and might be spam traps).\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">This example from Readymag is crystal clear. It gives subscribers an easy way to let you know they\u2019re a human:<\/span><\/p>\n<div class=\"image-scroll mb-3\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone\" src=\"https:\/\/www.litmus.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/1.png\" alt=\"\" \/><\/div>\n\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Source: <\/span><a rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/reallygoodemails.com\/emails\/youll-be-unsubscribed-from-readymag-emails\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Really Good Emails<\/span><\/a>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">This two-column design is another great example from Cuisinart:<\/span><\/p>\n<div class=\"image-scroll mb-3\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone\" src=\"https:\/\/www.litmus.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/2.png\" alt=\"\" \/><\/div>\n\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Source: <\/span><a rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/reallygoodemails.com\/emails\/pssstwe-have-a-question-for-you\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Really Good Emails<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Be upfront about it\u2014and if they don\u2019t engage with your final attempt, channel your inner Elsa and let them gooooo.<\/span><\/p>\n<h3><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">2. Pay attention to bounce notifications<\/span><\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">There are two types of bounces that occur when you send emails: <a rel=\"noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/www.litmus.com\/blog\/whats-the-difference-between-a-hard-and-soft-bounce\" target=\"_blank\">Hard bounce vs soft bounce<\/a>.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Hard bounces mean an email address is no longer valid or that you\u2019ve been blocked by the recipient, so remove those from your list right away before they cause an issue with your <\/span><a rel=\"noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/www.litmus.com\/blog\/prime-email-deliverability-for-success\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">deliverability<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">A soft bounce may occur for a few reasons, like a temporary issue such as a full inbox or that your email is too large. You don\u2019t have to remove those emails just yet but definitely pay attention to any soft bounces. If it happens too many times, you\u2019re better off removing them.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Add any of these bounced email addresses to a suppression list to make sure you don\u2019t reacquire the same address or accidentally send it again.<\/span><\/p>\n<h3><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">3. Use a double opt-in list-building strategy<\/span><\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Even if you managed to identify the traps and delete them from your list, you\u2019ve only treated the symptom, not the cause. You need to understand how the spam traps made it to your list in the first place and fix your list-building strategy to prevent further spam traps.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">If you\u2019re worried about your deliverability, it\u2019s time to switch to a double opt-in for your list acquisition. A double opt-in process means that a new subscriber signs up for your email list in the usual way (say, at the form at the bottom of your website, or by checking your opt-in box as they purchase something for the first time) and then must confirm their subscription in their first email.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Opt-in emails don\u2019t have to be fancy. Many of them are automatically generated by ESPs and look something like this:<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">But you can be creative with it, like this one from Recess:<\/span><\/p>\n<div class=\"image-scroll mb-3\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone\" src=\"https:\/\/www.litmus.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/3.png\" alt=\"\" \/><\/div>\n\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Source: <\/span><a rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/reallygoodemails.com\/emails\/confirm-your-subscription-recess\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Really Good Emails<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">You can easily work in subscription confirmation emails into your welcome or onboarding email flow. If you\u2019re not sure where to start, <\/span><a rel=\"noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/www.litmus.com\/email-templates\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">check out our free email template library here<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Does it add an extra step for subscribers? Yes. Does that mean you may lose out on some confirmations? Also yes. But if you\u2019re <\/span><a rel=\"noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/www.litmus.com\/blog\/why-emails-go-to-spam\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">struggling to land emails in the inbox<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, a high subscriber count won\u2019t mean anything. It\u2019s much better to have fewer subscribers who actually engage with your emails and want to hear from you than a large list of inactive, possible spam traps in terms of your overall email program.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">And we\u2019re just going to say this one more time for the people in the back: Don\u2019t ever, ever buy an email list.<\/span><\/p>\n<h3><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">4. Validate new email addresses<\/span><\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Use an address validation tool on your enrollment page to catch typos and non-existing email addresses before they make it to your mailing list. In this way, you can clean your email list before you ever send an <\/span><a rel=\"noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/www.litmus.com\/blog\/avoid-the-junk-folder-litmus-spam-testing\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">email to a spam trap<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> or an invalid address by accident.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It\u2019s also a good idea to do a regular check-up of your overall deliverability infrastructure, like checking for blocklists, and re-upping your domain authentication like DMARC, DKIM, SPF, BIMI\u2026yup, allll the acronyms. You\u2019ll also want to check to make sure your email content doesn\u2019t trip any regular spam filters. That way at least you can rule out a few more deliverability-related issues if you\u2019re having trouble making it to the inbox. (Pssst\u2026<\/span><a rel=\"noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/www.litmus.com\/blog\/make-it-to-the-inbox-not-the-spam-folder-with-litmus-spam-testing\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">we can help with that.<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">)<\/span><\/p>\n<h3><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">5. Set up a regular cadence of email list cleaning<\/span><\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Keeping spam traps off your email list requires constant vigilance. In the same way that you regularly schedule dentist and doctor\u2019s appointments, do the same for your email list. Set aside time each quarter to do some email list hygiene.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Generally, traps will appear in either your most recent signups, or in your oldest inactive segments, so make sure you focus on both angles to keep spam traps off your list. Doing so on a regular basis should help keep your email list fresh and clean.<\/span><\/p>\n<h2><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Make it to the inbox, not the spam folder<\/span><\/h2>\n<p><a rel=\"noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/www.litmus.com\/spam-filter-tests\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Litmus Spam Testing<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> helps you identify issues that may land your emails in the spam folder\u2014with contextual advice to fix deliverability problems before you send. <\/span>Say goodbye to spam traps for good!<\/p>\n\n<div class=\"container pt-3 pb-5\">\n\t<div class=\"row blog-cta-blue  p-4\">\n\t\t<div class=\"col-12 mx-auto\">\n\t\t\t<div class=\"row d-flex align-items-center\">\n\t\t\t<div class=\"col-lg-6 col-12\">\n\t\t\t\t<p class=\"bold fs-4\">Don\u2019t let bad data cost you<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t<p>Validity BriteVerify helps you remove invalid emails before you send\u2014saving money and improving deliverability.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t<button class=\"button-blue arrow\"><a rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.validity.com\/briteverify\/\" class=\"text-white text-decoration-none\">Clean your list<\/a><\/button>\n\t\t\t<\/div><!--col-6-->\n\t\t\t<div class=\"col-6 d-none d-lg-block\">\n\t\t\t\t<img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.litmus.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/blog-cta-12172024.svg\" width=\"208\" height=\"171\" alt=\"\">\n\t\t\t<\/div><!--col-6-->\n\t\t\t<\/div> <!--row-->\n\t\t<\/div><!--col-12-->\n\t<\/div><!--row-->\n<\/div><!--container-->\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\n  \t\t\t<\/div>\n  \t\t<\/div>\n  \t<\/div>\n  <\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":85204,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"tags":[9665,45,48],"blog_category":[10302],"class_list":["post-5788","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-audience-growth","tag-deliverability","tag-spam-filter","blog_category-email-deliverability"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v27.5 (Yoast SEO v27.7) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>The Ultimate Spam Trap Survival Guide: How to Stay Out of Spam - Litmus<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Worried about spam traps? This guide provides a comprehensive overview of what they are and how to avoid them to protect your email marketing. Learn more.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.litmus.com\/blog\/a-guide-to-spam-traps-and-how-to-avoid-them\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The Ultimate Spam Trap Survival Guide: How to Stay Out of Spam\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Worried about spam traps? This guide provides a comprehensive overview of what they are and how to avoid them to protect your email marketing. 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