What happens when a spam trap opens an email, and how do legitimate addresses become spam traps?

Email marketer from Constant Contact shares that if a spam trap opens an email, it's a strong indicator of poor list quality and can severely damage your sender reputation and deliverability. This is due to spam traps indicating the address has come from a purchased/harvested email list.

Email marketer from HubSpot explains that hitting a spam trap can negatively impact your sender reputation, leading to lower deliverability rates and potentially getting blacklisted. This emphasizes the importance of proactive list management.

Email marketer from SendGrid explains that to avoid spam traps, senders should practice good list hygiene, use confirmed opt-in, and regularly remove unengaged subscribers. Engaging new users regularly will also help you avoid spam traps.

Email marketer from Mailjet shares that a lack of engagement can cause legitimate addresses to turn into recycled spam traps. Regularly removing unengaged subscribers helps to maintain list hygiene and avoid these traps.

Email marketer from Email Marketing Forum recommends using a double opt-in process and regularly cleaning your list as crucial steps to avoid spam traps. They also advise monitoring bounce rates and unsubscribes to identify potential problems early.

Email marketer from Reddit r/emailmarketing suggests that one of the best ways to avoid spam traps is to use double opt-in and regularly clean your email list. Remove inactive subscribers and ensure your list is permission-based.

Email marketer from Neil Patel's Blog explains that when a pristine spam trap opens an email, it's a major red flag. These traps are specifically created to catch spammers, so an open indicates that the sender's list likely contains addresses obtained through unethical means. He also notes that recycled spam traps, which were once legitimate email addresses, start sending emails to opt-in lists, if the sender continues to send emails to these addresses then this is a red flag to mailbox providers.

Marketer from Email Geeks shares that even addresses properly collected through Confirmed Opt-In (COI) or Double Opt-In (DOI) can become recycled spam traps. If there's been a long period of inactivity or improper bounce processing, spam traps can still exist in the list.

Marketer from Email Geeks explains that if a spam trap opens an email, it means the operator is likely reviewing the email, which is usually a negative indicator unless collaborating to resolve a false positive. It's generally safe to consider a never-opened email as a potential spam trap.

Email marketer from ActiveCampaign emphasizes that sending emails only to those who have explicitly given permission is key to avoiding spam traps. Using double opt-in is a recommended practice to ensure consent.

Email marketer from EmailOversight Blog shares that spam traps are designed to identify senders who aren't following best practices. When a pristine spam trap opens an email, it indicates the sender is likely using scraped or purchased lists. Recycled spam traps occur when legitimate addresses are abandoned and later turned into traps; hitting these suggests poor list hygiene.

Email marketer from Litmus explains the importance of list hygiene in avoiding spam traps. Regularly cleaning lists by removing unengaged subscribers and validating email addresses can prevent deliverability issues caused by hitting spam traps.

Expert from Word to the Wise explains that hitting spam traps can be due to various reasons, including list scraping, purchasing lists, or poor list hygiene. She emphasizes that even legitimate addresses can become traps if they are not properly maintained and validated.

Expert from Spamresource answers questions about the different types of spam traps that are generally categorised by Pristine and Recycled. Pristine spam traps are addresses that have never been used by real users so are automatically considered bad. Recycled addresses have been used previously however have now been converted to spam traps.

Expert from Email Geeks explains that an email open does not equal permission. Opens are used for many things, and opening an email does not mean the recipient requested it.

Expert from Email Geeks shares that some of the first spam traps were fake addresses put in forms, due to the high volume of spam.

Documentation from Spamhaus explains that Spamhaus uses spam traps to identify and block spammers. Hitting a Spamhaus spam trap results in listing on their blocklists, impacting email deliverability. They outline various types of spam traps, including pristine and recycled traps, and emphasize the importance of clean email lists to avoid them.

Documentation from Return Path (now Validity) explained that ISPs recycle email addresses that have been inactive for an extended period. These addresses are converted into spam traps. Sending to these recycled addresses indicates poor list hygiene and can damage sender reputation.

Documentation from MailerQ explains that there are different types of spam traps. The most common of these being 'typo spam traps' where forms that require an email address do not validate the email address properly and therefore the email address submitted is technically incorrect. A recycled email address could also be used as a spam trap.

Documentation from Validity explains that email addresses become recycled spam traps when mailbox providers convert abandoned or inactive addresses into spam traps. Senders who continue to email these addresses, even after they've been inactive for a long time, risk being identified as spammers.