Do spam traps ever open or click on emails?

Email marketer from Email on Acid Blog explains that spam traps are designed to catch spammers, and pristine spam traps should never have any activity associated with them, implying they wouldn't open or click on emails. Recycled traps are a different scenario.

Email marketer from SendGrid Blog explains that spam traps are designed to catch senders using poor list practices. They typically do not engage with emails. If you are hitting spam traps it indicates a significant problem with your list acquisition or hygiene.

Email marketer from Reddit shares that while most spam traps are inactive and don't open emails, some honeypot spam traps may open emails to gather information about the sender and their practices.

Email marketer from Email Geeks shares he's seen pristine spam traps confirm subscription emails before, stating that there's no one-size-fits-all rule for spam trap behavior.

Email marketer from Email Geeks shares insight from a large spam trap entity, stating that while their traps generally don't click or open, they reserve the right to use them as they see fit.

Email marketer from Litmus Blog explains that generally spam traps are not opened or clicked. Their presence on your list is purely a negative signal. However, they do mention that some traps might perform limited interaction to analyze the email.

Email marketer from Hubspot Blog explains how to avoid spam traps. While they do not explicitly state whether spam traps open emails, they highlight the importance of maintaining a clean email list and avoiding the practices that lead to hitting spam traps in the first place, implying that no interaction is expected.

Email marketer from Neil Patel Blog explains that spam traps are designed to identify senders using poor list hygiene, and they typically don't engage with emails. However, some sophisticated traps might open emails to analyze content and sender reputation.

Email marketer from Email Marketing Forum shares that it's rare for spam traps to open or click emails, as this would defeat their purpose of identifying spammers. Most traps are designed to remain dormant.

Email marketer from ReturnPath Blog distinguishes between pristine and recycled spam traps. While they don't mention opening emails, they do say that hitting either type of trap is detrimental to sender reputation.

Expert from Email Geeks shares insight that the term "spam trap" is broadly defined and states he's observed pristine spam traps confirming subscription emails, indicating that the rule that they "never" engage is not always true.

Expert from Email Geeks explains that different networks treat spam traps differently. Some spam trap networks engage with emails for reasons like payload or content evaluation, but engagement is generally low.

Expert from Word to the Wise, Laura Atkins, shares insight that while the primary function of a spam trap is to identify senders with poor list hygiene, some operators use traps to gather intelligence. It's noted that it can be very hard to know what each operator does with their traps.

Expert from SpamResource explains that most spam traps are designed to be inactive and never open or click on emails. However, some 'honeypot' spam traps might open emails to gather information about spammers and their techniques.

Documentation from Microsoft outlines policies regarding junk email. While they don't specifically mention opening emails, they do explain that their filtering systems use various signals to identify spam, including the presence of spam traps. No mention is made of engagement activity.

Documentation from Mailchimp Knowledge Base explains that spam traps are email addresses created to identify spammers. They are never used to subscribe to email lists, so any email sent to them is a sign of poor list hygiene. Mailchimp's documentation doesn't specify that they open emails.

Documentation from Google outlines guidelines for email senders to ensure deliverability to Gmail users. They do not specifically say that they open the emails, they note that sending to spam traps impacts your sender reputation. They focus on authentication, list hygiene, and avoiding spam triggers.

Documentation from Spamhaus explains that Spamhaus uses spam traps to identify spammers, and these traps are generally dormant and do not interact with emails. Any email sent to a Spamhaus spam trap is considered unsolicited.

Documentation from AWS explains best practices for sending emails through their service. It focuses on avoiding spam traps and mentions that sending to spam traps can damage your sender reputation. AWS Documentation makes no specific statement on their spam traps opening emails.