Spam Trap

Spam traps are addresses that should never receive legitimate opted-in mail. Some are pristine (never used by a human). Others are recycled addresses that lapsed and were converted into traps. Hitting them tells providers your acquisition or hygiene is weak.

You do not get a friendly warning email when you hit a trap. You see reputation damage and placement drops. Avoid purchased lists, scrape sources, and ancient uncleaned databases.

Keep signup clean, confirm opt-in where it makes sense, and sunset inactive addresses. Reloop validation and bounce handling reduce accidental sends to dead addresses, but consent is still your job.