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Creating spam trap addresses
by Stephane
Spamtraps, anti-spam honeypot
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 spamtrap works
How spam trap works is simple. It is not used to send or receive electronic correspondence and must remain confidential to be effective. Its sole purpose is 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. IT security specialists sometimes use e-mail addresses that have been inactive for a long time as spam traps. If senders use the latter, they run the risk of being blacklisted.
The different methods of creating spamtraps
There are several ways to create a spam trap. The simplest is the binary method. The domain name to use is 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, they need to be placed in the right places: in the center of a web page, in comment boxes, in an online discussion group, etc. It’s also possible to dedicate a web page to spam traps and link it to other websites, making it accessible to spammers.
The important thing is that spam traps are not seen by users, but by spam bots, i.e. 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.
