Summary
The presence of spam or fake email addresses in marketing lists arises from multiple factors, including intentional user actions like providing bogus emails to bypass download restrictions or avoid registration, typos, and use of disposable addresses. Purchased lists from trade shows or CDs containing scraped addresses, and email harvesting by bots significantly contribute to the problem. Additionally, natural list decay due to job changes, forgotten passwords, and outdated contact information leads to invalid addresses. Technical factors such as incorrect email syntax, deviations from RFC standards, and the existence of spam traps and honeypots further exacerbate the issue. Furthermore poor user experience may lead to fake entries.
Key findings
- Intentional User Actions: Users deliberately provide fake or temporary email addresses to avoid registration or bypass download restrictions.
- Data Entry Errors: Typos and other data entry errors result in invalid email addresses.
- List Decay Over Time: Natural decay occurs as users change jobs, ISPs, forget passwords, or abandon email accounts.
- Harvesting and Scraping: Email harvesting by bots, scraping from websites, and purchased lists introduce invalid and often harmful addresses.
- Technical Issues: Incorrect email syntax, deviations from RFC standards, and the presence of spam traps contribute to invalid addresses.
- User Experience: A poor User Experience can prompt users to enter bogus email addresses.
Key considerations
- Data Validation: Implement robust data validation at the point of entry to minimize typos and fake submissions.
- Regular List Cleaning: Regularly clean email lists to remove hard bounces, unsubscribes, and inactive addresses.
- Permission-Based Marketing: Adopt permission-based marketing practices and avoid purchasing email lists.
- Spam Trap Monitoring: Monitor and remove potential spam traps to maintain sender reputation.
- User Experience: Improve UX to encourage honest sign ups.
- Compliance with Standards: Adhere to RFC standards for email address formatting to ensure technical validity.
What email marketers say
12 marketer opinions
Potential reasons for spam or fake email addresses in a marketing email list include: fake addresses to bypass download blockers, bogus emails due to unenjoyable user experiences, purchased email lists (often from tradeshows), typos, users providing fake info, outdated contact lists, disposable email addresses, role-based addresses, spam traps, natural decay, changes in job roles, deliberate fake submissions, address harvesting by bots, and users abandoning email accounts. Bots completing forms with random data, and landing in honeypots or spam traps can further pollute lists.
Key opinions
- Intentional Fakes: Users may provide fake or temporary emails to bypass registration requirements or avoid long-term commitment.
- Data Entry Errors: Typos and incorrect data entry contribute to invalid email addresses.
- Obsolete Data: Job changes, forgotten passwords, and abandoned accounts lead to inactive and invalid email addresses over time.
- Malicious Sources: Purchased lists and address harvesting by bots introduce spam traps and automatically generated addresses.
- UX Issues: Poor user experiences can cause users to input fake emails.
Key considerations
- Data Collection Practices: Review and improve data collection methods to minimize typos and encourage valid submissions.
- List Hygiene: Regularly clean and validate email lists to remove inactive, invalid, and potentially harmful addresses.
- User Experience: Enhance user experience to reduce the likelihood of users providing fake information.
- Source of Data: Avoid purchasing email lists. Instead, focus on organic list growth to ensure subscribers are genuinely interested.
- Spam Trap Monitoring: Actively monitor lists to avoid landing in honeypots or spam traps, which can damage sender reputation.
Marketer view
Email marketer from Email Geeks knows they bought email addresses from a tradeshow.
13 Mar 2023 - Email Geeks
Marketer view
Email marketer from Marketing Forum shares that many users provide disposable or temporary email addresses to access content or services without committing to long-term communication.
29 Nov 2023 - Marketing Forum
What the experts say
3 expert opinions
Potential reasons for spam or fake email addresses in a marketing email list, according to experts, include: Purchased CDs with scraped addresses from websites and Usenet, email harvesting through automated software (bots) crawling the web, and outdated email lists where people have changed jobs or ISPs, leading to bounced emails and lack of sender-recipient relationship.
Key opinions
- Data Scraping: Email addresses are often scraped from websites and Usenet and sold on CDs.
- Automated Harvesting: Spammers use bots to crawl the web and extract email addresses, adding them to spam lists without consent.
- List Decay: Old email lists become problematic as people change jobs or ISPs, leading to invalid addresses and bounces.
Key considerations
- Avoid Purchased Lists: Do not purchase email lists, as they often contain scraped and invalid addresses.
- Monitor for Data Scraping: Be aware that your email addresses may be scraped from your website and used for spam.
- Maintain List Hygiene: Regularly clean and update your email list to remove invalid addresses and improve deliverability.
Expert view
Expert from Email Geeks suggests the email addresses might come from purchased CDs containing scraped addresses from websites and Usenet.
21 Apr 2025 - Email Geeks
Expert view
Expert from Word to the Wise explains that addresses from very old lists tend to be problematic because people change jobs or ISPs. Some domains may also be gone and revert to catch-all addresses, addresses where all mail bounces. Many of these addresses are people who have no relationship with the sender.
5 Apr 2024 - Word to the Wise
What the documentation says
5 technical articles
Potential reasons for spam or fake email addresses in a marketing email list include hard bounces (permanent issues like non-existent addresses), soft bounces (temporary issues like full inboxes), unsubscribed or manually removed addresses, spam traps (pristine, recycled, typo traps), fake accounts created with false information, incorrect email syntax (missing @ or invalid characters), and deviations from official email address standards (RFC 5322).
Key findings
- Bounce Types: Invalid addresses are categorized as hard bounces (permanent failures) or soft bounces (temporary failures).
- Spam Traps: Spam traps are used to identify and block spammers and come in different forms (pristine, recycled, typo).
- Fake Accounts: Fake accounts are created with false information, often for malicious purposes or to bypass content gates.
- Syntax Errors: Incorrect email address syntax, such as missing symbols or invalid characters, leads to invalid addresses.
- Standard Violations: Deviations from official email address standards result in technically invalid addresses.
Key considerations
- Bounce Management: Properly handle hard and soft bounces to maintain list health and sender reputation.
- Spam Trap Avoidance: Implement measures to avoid sending to spam traps, such as validating email addresses and practicing permission-based marketing.
- Account Validation: Implement robust account validation processes to prevent the creation of fake accounts.
- Syntax Validation: Validate email address syntax at the point of entry to catch errors early.
- Adherence to Standards: Adhere to official email address standards to ensure addresses are technically valid.
Technical article
Documentation from Mailchimp explains that invalid email addresses can be hard bounces (permanent reasons such as non-existent address) or soft bounces (temporary reasons such as full inbox), and can also include unsubscribed or manually removed addresses.
8 Jun 2023 - Mailchimp
Technical article
Documentation from Validity (formerly ReturnPath) explains spam traps are email addresses that are used to identify spammers. These can be pristine traps (never used), recycled traps (old addresses), or typo traps (addresses with common typos).
25 Jan 2025 - Validity
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