# Spam trap A spam trap is an email address that mailbox providers and anti-spam organizations use to catch senders with poor list practices. Nobody uses it to sign up for anything, so mailing one shows you are sending to addresses you didn't get with consent, which damages your sender reputation. Canonical page: https://getlaunchlist.com/glossary/spam-trap. Updated 2026-10-15. ## The three kinds of spam trap **Pristine traps** are addresses that have never belonged to a person. They are planted on web pages where only scrapers will find them. Mailing one proves you collected addresses without consent, which is why they do the most damage. **Recycled traps** were once real addresses. The owner abandoned the account, the provider bounced mail to it for a long time, and then turned it into a trap. Mailing one shows you are still sending to addresses that stopped working long ago. **Typo traps** sit on misspelled domains, such as gmial.com or yaho.com. They catch senders who never check that the address someone typed is the one they meant. ## Who runs them and why Mailbox providers like Gmail and Outlook, and blocklist operators such as Spamhaus, run spam traps to find senders who don't look after their lists. A trap can't sign up, can't open an email and can't complain. The only way mail reaches one is if the sender got the address some other way than the owner choosing to give it. That makes a trap hit one of the clearest signals a provider has. ## How traps get onto a waitlist - **Bought or scraped lists.** The surest way to collect pristine traps. Importing one into a waitlist mixes the problem into a list that was clean. - **Typos at signup.** A real person types gmial.com, and the address you save is a typo trap. - **Bots on an unprotected form.** Bots sometimes submit addresses scraped from the web, traps included. - **Old lists.** A list collected years ago and mailed again may contain addresses that have since become recycled traps. ## Keeping them off your list - **Confirm every signup by email.** A trap never clicks the link, so [double opt-in](https://getlaunchlist.com/glossary/double-opt-in) keeps traps from becoming confirmed contacts. - **Catch typos as people type.** Suggest the right domain before the form is sent. - **Never buy, rent or scrape a list.** - **Remove hard bounces at once**, and stop mailing addresses that haven't engaged in a long time. - **Keep bots off the form** with invisible checks like a honeypot field. Traps are one of the main threats to your [sender reputation](https://getlaunchlist.com/glossary/sender-reputation), and through it to your [email deliverability](https://getlaunchlist.com/glossary/email-deliverability). ## Spam traps and LaunchList No tool can tell you which addresses are traps, so LaunchList works on the habits that keep them out. Waitlist [forms](https://getlaunchlist.com/features/forms) ask new signups to confirm their email by default, and the email field offers a fix for common typos, so gmial.com becomes gmail.com with one tap before the signup is sent. Every signup passes the spam checks, including a hidden field only bots fill in. When you [email](https://getlaunchlist.com/features/email) your list, addresses that can't receive mail are left out, and anyone who bounced, unsubscribed or marked an earlier email as spam is skipped at the moment the email sends. If too much of an audience looks undeliverable, the broadcast is held before it goes out. ## Frequently asked questions ### How do spam traps end up on a waitlist? Usually through bought or scraped lists, mistyped addresses, or bots typing addresses into a form that has no confirmation step. Recycled traps can also appear when you mail an old list in which an abandoned address has since been turned into a trap. ### How do I avoid spam traps? Only mail people who gave you their address, confirm new signups by email, never buy or scrape lists, and remove addresses that bounce or haven't engaged in a long time. Fixing typos at signup keeps typo traps out too. ### Can I find out which addresses on my list are spam traps? Not reliably. Trap operators keep their addresses secret, because a known trap catches nobody. The dependable approach is to make sure no address on your list got there without its owner choosing to sign up. ### What happens if I hit a spam trap? It depends on the trap and who runs it. A single typo trap may only nudge your reputation down, while hitting pristine traps can get your domain or IP address added to a blocklist, sending your mail to spam or getting it refused everywhere that list is used. ## Related terms - [Sender reputation](https://getlaunchlist.com/glossary/sender-reputation.md) - [Email deliverability](https://getlaunchlist.com/glossary/email-deliverability.md) - [Double opt-in](https://getlaunchlist.com/glossary/double-opt-in.md)