A spamtrap is a
honeypot used to collect
spam
Spam may refer to:
* Spam (food), a canned pork meat product
* Spamming, unsolicited or undesired electronic messages
** Email spam, unsolicited, undesired, or illegal email messages
** Messaging spam, spam targeting users of instant messaging ( ...
.
Spamtraps are usually
e-mail
Electronic mail (email or e-mail) is a method of exchanging messages ("mail") between people using electronic devices. Email was thus conceived as the electronic ( digital) version of, or counterpart to, mail, at a time when "mail" meant ...
addresses that are created not for communication, but rather to lure spam.
In order to prevent legitimate email from being invited, the e-mail address will typically only be published in a location hidden from view such that an automated e-mail address harvester (used by spammers) can find the email address, but no sender would be encouraged to send messages to the email address for any legitimate purpose. Since no e-mail is solicited by the owner of this spamtrap e-mail address, any e-mail messages sent to this address are immediately considered unsolicited.
The term is a
compound
Compound may refer to:
Architecture and built environments
* Compound (enclosure), a cluster of buildings having a shared purpose, usually inside a fence or wall
** Compound (fortification), a version of the above fortified with defensive struct ...
of the words "spam" and "trap", because a spam analyst will lay out spamtraps to catch spam in the same way that a fur trapper lays out traps to catch wild animals. The provenance of this term is unknown, but several competing anti-spam organizations claim trademark over it.
Industry uses
An untainted spamtrap can continue to collect samples of unsolicited messages that can be acted on by an automated anti-spam system. The automated system could instantly block any further e-mail messages with the same content, arriving for other e-mail addresses, because the messages would then be considered as bulk unsolicited e-mail, the typical definition of spam. Automation is considered "safe" because no legitimate email messages should be arriving to the spamtrap address.
The source IP address of a sender delivering e-mail to the spamtrap could also be added to a blacklist for source address blacklisting of e-mail.
Vulnerabilities
* A spamtrap becomes tainted when a third party discovers what the spamtrap e-mail address is being used for. Once this occurs, the third party could target the spamtrap by maliciously sending email to it giving the third party some control over the automated process of what is being considered bulk unsolicited e-mail by the anti-spam system. However, they would be able to subscribe a spamtrap address to an email list only if that list would not use
confirmed opt-in.
* Spammers using spamtrap addresses from their mailing lists as sender addresses can cause
backscatter
In physics, backscatter (or backscattering) is the reflection of waves, particles, or signals back to the direction from which they came. It is usually a diffuse reflection due to scattering, as opposed to specular reflection as from a mirror, a ...
when a reply/DSN is sent to the spamtrap address.
* If the spammer puts a spamtrap mailbox address into the TO or CC line, when any of the other addresses "reply-all" or forward the message, it will cause that address to be considered spam, too.
* Many spamtrap addresses show up in search engine results, and anyone can write to these addresses without knowing that all mail will be caught as spam.
Usenet
A spamtrap can also be a
Usenet
Usenet () is a worldwide distributed discussion system available on computers. It was developed from the general-purpose Unix-to-Unix Copy (UUCP) dial-up network architecture. Tom Truscott and Jim Ellis conceived the idea in 1979, and it was ...
newsgroup
A Usenet newsgroup is a repository usually within the Usenet system, for messages posted from users in different locations using the Internet. They are discussion groups and are not devoted to publishing news. Newsgroups are technically distinct ...
whose sole purpose is to lure
cross-post
Crossposting is the act of posting the same message to multiple information channels; forums, mailing lists, or newsgroups. This is distinct from multiposting, which is the posting of separate identical messages, individually, to each channel, (a ...
ed spam. For example, the
alt.sex.cancel newsgroup charter
A charter is the grant of authority or rights, stating that the granter formally recognizes the prerogative of the recipient to exercise the rights specified. It is implicit that the granter retains superiority (or sovereignty), and that the re ...
states that any article posted there may be cancelled immediately. Thus, a spammer who cross-posts an article to the entire
alt.sex.* hierarchy, including alt.sex.cancel, will find that article is quickly cancelled.
See also
*
Project Honey Pot
Project Honey Pot is a web-based honeypot network operated by Unspam Technologies, Inc. It uses software embedded in web sites. It collects information about the IP addresses used when harvesting e-mail addresses in spam, bulk mailing, and o ...
*
Address munging Address munging is the practice of disguising
an e-mail address to prevent it from being automatically collected by unsolicited bulk e-mail providers.
Address munging is intended to disguise an e-mail address in a way that prevents computer softwa ...
*
Anti-spam techniques (e-mail)
Various anti-spam techniques are used to prevent email spam (unsolicited bulk email).
No technique is a complete solution to the spam problem, and each has trade-offs between incorrectly rejecting legitimate email (false positives) as opposed to ...
*
Botnets
A botnet is a group of Internet-connected devices, each of which runs one or more Internet bot, bots. Botnets can be used to perform distributed denial-of-service attack, Distributed Denial-of-Service (DDoS) attacks, steal data, send Spamming, s ...
*
E-mail address harvesting
Email harvesting or scraping is the process of obtaining lists of email addresses using various methods. Typically these are then used for bulk email or spam.
Methods
The simplest method involves spammers purchasing or trading lists of email addr ...
*
List poisoning
The term list poisoning refers to poisoning an e-mail mailing list with invalid e-mail addresses.
Industry uses
Once a mailing list has been poisoned with a number of invalid e-mail addresses, the resources required to send a message to this l ...
*
Stopping e-mail abuse
Various anti-spam techniques are used to prevent email spam (unsolicited bulk email).
No technique is a complete solution to the spam problem, and each has trade-offs between incorrectly rejecting legitimate email (false positives) as opposed to ...
References
{{Spamming
Spamming