word of the day: SPAM TRAPS - know what they are?

are you single optin or double optin

Really? I've used them on my mail server since the last century. I have addresses that were listed on various websites for the scrapers to grab, as well as addresses that could only be found using dictionary attacks. Someone sends mail to any of those, and their mail will be flagged and rejected as spam from that point on.


Were you using confirmed opt-in?

Spam trap! Wow,need the add that to the dictionary ASAP!

robert - single. the double i'm worried will mess up conversions on the sales funnel... (having to put a confirmation or something on there)

You must be using single optin? If so then maybe a competitor or someone with a grudge entered that email into your autoresponder.

Abuse departments will create honeypots (websites) and spamtraps (email addresses) to find spammers, hackers, etc. It's kinda like calling people with arrest warrants and telling them they won a free tv. When they go to collect their free tv they get arrested. I've always felt it was a form of entrapment but they get away with it.

What's hilarious is the spam and phishing attempts that get sent directly to the abuse departments email address

More Info:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Honeypot_(computing)
Spamtrap - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

A spam trap is a email address seeded into email list that are floated around the net either for sale or free. So if you buy a list or get one for free I suggest you get a script or software to detect "spam trap" email addresses.

double optin is probably the long term answer, but you're risking messing up your sales funnel to get more people confirming their emails. no?

bill, lol.... nice try.... they dont release the addresses. if they did, they wouldnt be spam traps.

i hear ya. whats weird is it JUST happened.... and i mail out all the time to the list. my programmer had a 'purge all those who don't open in 90 days' on the to do list which i THINK will solve the issue.

but yeah.... its a pain in the rear end either way.

i was on the phone w/ icontact just now. account is going to be closed.

they said it wasn't a spam trap, but complaints to antispam organizations because of my emails.

what person would spend 30 min of their time to go find an antispam company to complain about emails you opted into receive??

it just seems malicious and out of the blue.

they told me my account wasn't even one they would worry about as complaints were very low.

dan, They come to the site and opt in themselves. I don't advertise, they find me.

the person/ppl went to an antispam organization to complain.

that doesn't sound like something a normal person would do. it seems like this was malicious in intent.

all is good, got another, much better A/R company ready to roll... we integrate everything this week.

bye bye icontact. :-)

If they allow single opt-in and nuked your account over a single spam complaint, I wouldn't consider them wise or sensible for use by anyone.

Just as an aside... I was familiar with the term spamtrap back in 98. Maybe earlier. It's an old expression, probably pre-dating my time on the net.


Paul

I use single opt-ins but even somebody typing their email address with fat fingers (a typo in their email address) can get ya in trouble. If the email gets sent to a real email address by mistake and you start sending them autoresponder emails they can report you for spam.

Double Opt-In is much safer.

Dave, I'm one of those people who will report an email as spam -- as long as it meets the full definition of spam (which is primarily CAN-SPAM where I live). I've done what I call "spam slaps" and have seen email from offenders suddenly and permanently stop. However, I am also very familiar with the law and always do my best to ensure that I only complain about "real" spam.

Thankfully, with only one or two exceptions over the years, I've never had anybody not honor an unsubscribe request (although, in some cases, it has involved personal contact with the sender -- and in most cases, the auto-unsubscribe didn't happen due to either a technical glitch or procedural meltdown), even when they could legally send me commercial / bulk email. On the other hand, if there's no relationship, I just let my filters deal with it and stay on their list, knowing that it usually costs the sender something. If they want to pay to have me ignore their email, it's their business.

CAN-SPAM does NOT prohibit the sending of unsolicited commercial / bulk email (except to mobile devices, for which explicit permission must first be granted). But even with permission to email, a lot of people violate the law by doing stuff like this:

* Deceptive subject lines. Aside from "You Just Received A Payment", my current "favorite" are those stating that you have free access to a product, when the link given is clearly an affiliate link to either a squeeze page or a sales letter. Deceptive. Slap!

* Inability to unsubscribe or not honoring unsubscribe requests. In some of these messages, the senders will "borrow" an Aweber or GetResponse unsubscribe link from another email -- which of course doesn't work -- to lend authenticity to their email (and I never complain about legit email sent from these companies). In other cases, trying to unsubscribe simply tells the spammer that they have a "live" email address, which is worth more to them.

* Not marking commercial email as such. I'd talk more about this if it weren't for the fact that, um, the guy who types my emails sometimes forgets to do this...

There's more in the law, but that's enough for starters.

Also, keep in mind that your email service provider or hosting company usually has some clause in their Terms that prohibit sending email without permission. So there's not just the law to deal with -- you also have to deal with legal agreements that you may have voluntarily entered into.

And while most anti-spam services have great intentions and do provide a valuable service, they are the "court of last resort" and can be quite heavy-handed. You have no one to appeal to in most cases, even if you are obviously right. It's a lousy system.

That's why I've decided to go with Aweber for my lists. Like me, they're not perfect, but I think they do a good job of protecting their customers from these types of complaints (plus they do a lot of other stuff behind the scenes that helps a lot). And I wouldn't think of not using a double opt-in system.


HTH,
Tom

P.S. -- A special "thanks" to Becky Hagel (who commented a couple of posts up)... She took the time to gently correct this overzealous computer seucurity geek on this topic a long time ago, when I was first getting started in this business, for which I am extremely grateful. Good to see you're still alive and kicking, Becky!

STATING THE OBVIOUS DISCLAIMER: This isn't legal advice and this isn't a computer security consult, and if you think it is, I'm lying through my teeth...

apparently somehow i got a SH!tload of their ip's blacklisted. which is bizarre because I mail out this list maybe 1-2x a week.... nothing crazy and its all to people who opted in.

oh and guys.... there are spam trap emails that WILL double opt in confirm.

just a little FYI

Dave,

I dont know your flow but double shouldnt slow the flow.

As far as traps confirming, well then they aren't traps. Clicking the confirm link is granting permission to email.

From another thread, it seems you use xrummer... someone might be returning the favor.

Garrie

lol... xrumer has nothing to do with this. i'm in tears laughing at that one garrie

and yes there are spam trap emails that double confirm. just so you know.