What’s a role account and why can’t I send to it?

What is a Role Account?

Role accounts (admin@, support@, sales@) are email addresses that are not associated with a particular person, but rather with a company, department, position or group. They are not generally intended for personal use, as they typically include a distribution list of recipients.

Why are role accounts an issue?

It is impossible to prove everyone who will receive emails at these addresses has given consent to receive them. This is especially important when it comes to sending commercial-based marketing communications because you can never control who or how many people will receive your message.

This also raises the likelihood that somebody will mark your email as SPAM. These addresses are commonly included in many websites (like on a Contact Us page), which means they are more susceptible to being picked up by list harvesting software.

Lists with a high percentage of role accounts are indicative of someone using a ‘scraped’ and/or purchased list.

We’re able to monitor lists as they get uploaded to see how many of these role accounts are present and act accordingly before a campaign gets sent. This can help detect other potential problems with the list in question.

Blacklist providers such as Spamhaus use role accounts like these as “honeypot” addresses in an attempt to trap spammers.

They claim that any email sent to those addresses is spam by default because the address was obtained and used without permission.

What does email provider like Cakemail do about these types of emails?

We maintain a master suppression list for role-based addresses to help maintain a consistent, good sender reputation for our services and our clients. While the full list of prefixes we suppress is not publicly available, we update it frequently to ensure it is accurate and to maintain high levels of email delivery.

When clients send emails, and even when someone attempts to add a role-based email to a contact list, the email address is automatically suppressed and never sent to.

Whether someone complains to their ISP, you get blacklisted for sending to spam traps, or your list contains too many of these generic addresses in proportion to personal email accounts, these addresses are suppressed because they are almost never found on opt-in lists and sending to them can seriously hurt your delivery.

Suppression lists are a common feature amongst all email service providers – it’s how we maintain consistent (and great) delivery rates, and also how we help your reputation as an email sender be a positive one.

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Author Cakemail Support

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