Spam traps are a type of email address that is used by Internet Service Providers (ISPs), anti-spam organizations, and blocklist operators to identify senders who are not following best email practices. They can also be a source of problems for your email deliverability and reputation.

There are different types of spam traps, but each one has its own purpose. Pure spam traps are illegitimate addresses that were obtained without permission and set up as bait for spammers.

Pure spam traps can be identified by their unique domain name and email address. If you’re a marketer, you may have received emails with these addresses on them. They’re a good way to identify your contact list and make sure you’re only sending messages to real, active people.

Some people will sign up for your mailing list and then leave it or unsubscribe from it without ever opening a single email you send. This can happen if your marketing emails are sent at the wrong time or are not relevant to them. Keeping your subscriber lists updated and engaging with your subscribers is the best way to prevent them from signing up for a spam trap.

Typo spam traps are often the most frustrating of all because they look just like a real person’s email address, but don’t match the way someone writes their email. Sometimes, people don’t know they’re on a list, and they handwrite their email address incorrectly or use a typo that’s hard to read.

When you find a typo in an email address, it’s important to check it for a spam trap removal service right away so that you can remove it before it causes your deliverability rates to drop. This can be a great way to save your sender score and boost your email marketing performance.

There are a few ways to identify these types of email addresses, but the most reliable way is to verify them with an email validation service. It’s important to choose a service that is reputable and offers a large database of validated email addresses.

Another option is to perform an inbox scan with a service like EmailOversight, ZeroBounce, or SparkPost. These services claim to be able to identify spam traps and can give you a report that can be downloaded as a csv file.

Some of these services will only be able to catch a small percentage of them, so you should do your own analysis of your list. This is important because spam traps are constantly being created, so it can be difficult to keep up with them.

Recycled spam traps are old email addresses that haven’t been opted into a mailing list for quite some time. These are a good indicator that your list isn’t being well maintained and should be cleaned up regularly.

Once you’ve gathered a list of recycled spam traps, you can then suppress them from your contact list to ensure they don’t get caught in any future campaigns. This will prevent them from receiving any future messages and help maintain your sender reputation and improve your deliverability rate.