I’ve not observed these in the wild – nor should I have, so far, as there are still three weeks and change left on the calendar before CASL goes into effect. But I’d bet you a box of meat we’ll soon see a new type of spam trap meant to tease out data from the spam stream on which senders are not bothering to comply. Continue reading
Tag Archives: spamtraps
Avoiding Spamtrap Disasters
Nothing can derail an e-mail marketing program so quickly and completely as sending mail to spamtraps. Businesses that are new to e-mail marketing are often unschooled in the hazards of spamtraps, so today we’ll take a crack at explaining what they are and how they work, and what senders can do to avoid spamtrap disasters.
Spamtraps are e-mail addresses that, by design, look and behave in most ways like ordinary, deliverable addresses. Once they’ve been added to a list of recipients, there’s really no way for senders to tell them apart.
The difference between spamtrap addresses and ordinary recipient addresses is that spamtrap addresses are never used to opt in to mail, or to send any mail at all. Owners of spamtraps use them to collect mail from, and generate data on senders who are harvesting, e-pending, or guessing addresses (or who are purchasing lists comprised of same) and who are sending to them without any kind of permission.
The Email Skinny 