Did you know that over half of all emails sent every month are spam (Source)? That’s a ton of junk clogging up inboxes, making it harder for real messages to reach the right people.
And then there are email honeypots – silent traps waiting to catch spammers. But here’s the catch: if you’re not careful, they can mess with your sender reputation, hurt deliverability, and even get you flagged.
So, what exactly is an email honeypot trap?
Let me break it down for you.
What is an email honeypot trap?
Email honeypots are anti-spam traps that catch spammers.
Besides catching malicious senders, email honeypots also catch senders with poor sender reputations.
This can also include professionals actively using a purchased list to send marketing or promotional emails. Further, it also includes hackers who harvest email addresses from web pages and subdomains.
In simpler terms, email honeypot works as a spam prevention technology designed to trick spambots into revealing themselves. Once a bot falls into your trap, you can block that user and prevent further spam through the information you receive about the spammer.
Honeypots also target bots that input fake email addresses into website forms.
Honeypots work in multiple ways.
Nine common types of honeypot emails
Spammers can be caught through different types of honeypot emails. Let’s look at its different types:
Email honeypots
These are inactive email addresses that are used to receive emails from spammers and catch them in action. Cybersecurity teams collect these suspicious emails for production and research purposes.
In simple terms, cyber security experts set up a fake email address to specifically attract automated spammers that can harm business’s reputation.
High-interaction honeypots
These are intricate and complex honeypot systems that waste a spammer’s time so the team can analyze their strategies and tactics. This gives the teams additional time to check the vulnerabilities, blind spots, and problem areas within the network.
Low-interaction honeypots
These honeypot addresses are the least complex and give the spammer limited access to the decoy system. It emulates a small amount of internet protocols and network services, that present enough proof to deceive the spammer.
Spam honeypots
These trap the spammers using fake data that might appear valuable for their purposes. The only problem with this type is that even legitimate senders with poor list management and bad sending practices can fall prey to it.
Database honeypots
This type protects the database by attracting spammers through a decoy database.
The spammers get caught in the trap as soon as they get through the firewall.
Client honeypots
A client or a server honeypot is used to lure suspicious servers that hackers utilize when attacking other servers. The team uses this to watch how a hacker modifies the servers during an attack.
Research honeypots
Research honeypots are used by government agencies to reveal a spammer’s methods and tactics.
Production honeypots
Production honeypots are used to check vulnerabilities on a network. These honeypots work by distracting cyber attackers from legitimate targets within the network.
Malware honeypots
This type of honeypot copies software apps and APIs to intentionally attract malware attacks. Further, the security teams find out the API weaknesses that must be addressed and create malware software.
Now, let’s check out how these types of honeypot emails are activated.
How is a honeypot email activated?
Besides planning, setting up and activating a honeypot email is an indispensable step in catching hold of spammers.
Check out how it’s done perfectly in the steps below:
- Creation of the honeypot email address: The team of cybersecurity experts creates an email address that looks legitimate, but it is created and used for trapping spammers.
- Distribution of the honeypot: Next, the emails are strategically distributed and placed where the spammers can easily find them. Some of the most prominent places could be forums, websites, and others. The emails could also be strategically hidden in the HTML webpage codes.
- Email sent to Honeypot: The trap gets activated when a marketer or spammer sends an email to the honeypot email address.
- Data collection: The honeypot system will automatically record the sender’s data. The details would include IP addresses, email headers, content, and other sending patterns.
- Analysis: Further, the data is analyzed to gauge the tactics and techniques used by the sender.
- Spam filter update: The information acquired from analysis updates the spam score filters and improves the email security measures.
- Blacklisting or flagging: The senders’ IP address or email service could get blacklisted, based on the email intent, frequency and severity. As a result, emails from a specific source get blocked or marked as email spam.
- Ongoing monitoring: This process will require consistent monitoring for email security as honeypots could remain active. This might result in them continuing to collect data on new threats and tactics implemented by spammers.
What are the risks of getting caught in a honeypot?
Digital footprints bring with them risks of getting caught in spam traps and honeypot email addresses. The biggest issue is when you end up sending emails to these addresses causing you to be identified as a spammer.
This puts your sender’s reputation at risk, eventually leading to low email deliverability on your marketing emails or getting blacklisted with certain email service providers.
Also, these risky email addresses put you at risk of your campaigns being blocked, which can be temporary or even permanent.
Moreover, some jurisdictions have strict anti-spam laws which can get the entity in trouble. The penalties range from fines, as well as severe legal troubles. These penalties might depend on the frequency of violations and the laws implemented.
Wasted marketing resources are yet another danger, which means the efforts could be directed towards non-existent or fraudulent email addresses. Not only is there no ROI, but time and money are also wasted.
Truly, the risks of getting caught in a honeypot email are countless, making it vital to protect your business from the spam scare.
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Conclusion
The internet is a space that continues to get more intricate and detailed every single day. Despite the safety measures, even seasoned professionals could find themselves in honeypots if they are not cautious.
I hope this article gave you all the insights necessary to keep your brand safe by setting up honeypots to protect your brand from spammers.
By now we know how important it is to keep your email marketing domain safe. Things can dwindle if you end up in a honeypot.
Remember: Growing a business is important, but keeping it safe is essential.
FAQ
How does an email honeypot differ from a spam trap?
While both are used to detect spammers, email honeypots are deliberately created to lure and identify malicious actors, whereas spam traps are often old, inactive email addresses used to catch senders who don’t maintain clean lists.
Can email honeypots help improve email deliverability?
Yes. By identifying and blocking spammers, email honeypots help protect the sender’s reputation and reduce the chances of legitimate emails being marked as spam.
Can email honeypots be used for ethical hacking?
Yes, ethical hackers and cybersecurity researchers use honeypots to study spammer behavior, test security systems, and improve defenses against malicious activities.
Do email honeypots work against sophisticated phishing attacks?
Yes, they help identify phishing sources, track attack vectors, and improve anti-phishing filters, but they are not a standalone solution. Organizations should use them alongside other email security measures.