Spam traps are addresses set up to catch email marketers who follow poor list acquisition and hygiene methods. They come in two flavors: true and recycled traps. A true trap is an email address created by an internet service provider or blacklist owner; they don't sign the address up to receive any marketing messages. True traps exist to catch spammers that acquire addresses through nefarious methods like harvesting. A recycled trap is an abandoned email address that an ISP uses to catch mailers who aren’t following good list hygiene practices.
Spam traps can cause major deliverability problems, namely being blacklisted or blocked by an ISP. Return Path’s most recent reputation studyOpens in a new window shows that having just one spam trap on your list could drop your Sender Score, an indication of your trustworthiness ranging from zero to 100, to 80 or below and cause your inbox deliverability rate to plunge 38 percent. The good news is that spam traps are avoidable.