Creating spam trap addresses

By definition, a spam trap is an e-mail address specially designed to detect and attract any illicit mail entering the user’s mailbox, and to identify the addresses used by spammers. This is a technique developed by IT security specialists to prevent server saturation and user e-mail address overload.

How spam trap works

How spam trap works is simple. It will not be used to send or receive electronic correspondence. All the more so as spam trap must remain confidential if it is to be effective. Its sole purpose would be to attract spam received by users. Any e-mail caught by the spam trap will be considered illegitimate. The sender’s IP address will immediately be blacklisted by the user’s ISP.

The existence of spam trap can represent a danger for certain categories of users. This is the case, for example, with legitimate advertisers and users who do not regularly update their contact list. Indeed, security specialists often use e-mail addresses that have been inactive for a long time as spam traps. Once senders come across these, they risk being blacklisted.

The different methods of creating spam trap

There are several ways to create a spam trap. The simplest would be the binary method. The domain name to be used will be the same for all spam traps. The advantage of this method is that there is no confusion between email addresses. Apart from its efficiency, it doesn’t require a lot of financial resources.

The craftsman’s method involves collecting all e-mails sent to non-existent e-mail addresses, opening them to confirm that they have been viewed and that the receiving address is valid. After a while, these e-mail addresses can be used as spam traps without restriction.

There are also spam trap addresses created from a dictionary of first and last names. We’ll have to wait a little longer for this method to be effective. To speed up their effectiveness, spam trap addresses, accompanied by hidden links, can be published on a website.

How to optimize the use of a spam trap?

For spam traps to be effective, the email addresses used by the spamtrap need to be placed in the right places: in the center of a web page, in the comments area, in an online newsgroup, etc. The email addresses used by the spamtrap need to be placed in the right places. It would also be possible to dedicate a web page to spam traps and link it to other websites so that it is accessible to spammers.

The important thing is that these spam trap addresses are not seen by users, but by the spam bots, i.e. the spammers’ e-mail address capture tools. In this way, they will be automatically integrated into their database. The result of the trap will be visible after a while.