Short answer: Yes. Longer answer: Still yes, and here's why.
Spamhaus. If you're in the business of sending email, you've probably heard the name. Maybe not as much lately. But that doesn't mean you can ignore them.
Right now, email senders are heads-down trying to get their SPF, DKIM, and DMARC right. Between new MAGY sender requirements, complaint rate thresholds, and proper email authentication, there's no shortage of things to worry about. It makes sense that Spamhaus might fall off the radar a bit.
True, you don't hear as many horror stories about Spamhaus listings today as you did, say, ten years ago. Back then, they'd list the sending IP address of a questionable marketing sender without hesitation. And the remediation? It usually involved some mix of switching to double opt-in, running a "permission pass" reconfirmation campaign, and watching your list size drop by 90%. Painful.
So why the relative quiet? I rather suspect that it is because the spam problem has evolved. There's more outright criminal garbage out there now. Phishing, malware, botnets. Bigger fish, in a sense. And Spamhaus spends a lot of time chasing that. Scarier threats, beyond marketing mail to single opt-in, unconfirmed addresses. It makes sense that they're focusing more on things more directly malicious.
But don't confuse less noise with a lack of risk.
Spamhaus still collects mountains of data. Their spamtrap network is massive. And if you're sending to enough unconfirmed, typo-ridden, or outdated email addresses, especially ones that never should've been on your list in the first place, in their estimation, you can still find yourself listed.
I've spoken with deliverability folks at multiple ESPs who've dealt with Spamhaus listings in 2025. It still happens. And it's still painful.
Here's just a partial list of providers that reject mail based on Spamhaus listings: Apple iCloud, CenturyLink, Charter, Cloudmark, Microsoft, Proofpoint, Rackspace, Yahoo. That's most of MAGY right there. Add Bell in Canada. Orange and SFR in France. Freenet in Germany. Seeweb in Italy. It goes on.
If you're listed on Spamhaus, you don't just take a minor hit. You fully lose the ability to deliver mail at some major ISPs and filters. That's real money, real lost engagement, real deliverability damage.
So yes, Spamhaus still matters in 2025.
Want to avoid getting listed? It's usually not rocket science. Their traps are full of mail to addresses that never confirmed. So don't send to unconfirmed addresses. Use double opt-in. It really is that simple, and that's why I advocate for it. To avoid the headache that things like a Spamhaus listing can cause.
You don't have to listen to me now. That's OK! I can't force you to anything. But if/when you run into a Spamhaus issue, and have to go through a painful cleanup process, when you're wondering, how do we prevent a recurrence? At the very least, consider double opt-in then.
Want to learn more? I interviewed Andrew Barrett from Spamhaus back in December 2024, find the video here.
Short answer: Yes. Longer answer: Still yes, and here's why.
Spamhaus. If you're in the business of sending email, you've probably heard the name. Maybe not as much lately. But that doesn't mean you can ignore them.
Right now, email senders are heads-down trying to get their SPF, DKIM, and DMARC right. Between new MAGY sender requirements, complaint rate thresholds, and proper email authentication, there's no shortage of things to worry about. It makes sense that Spamhaus might fall off the radar a bit.
True, you don't hear as many horror stories about Spamhaus listings today as you did, say, ten years ago. Back then, they'd list the sending IP address of a questionable marketing sender without hesitation. And the remediation? It usually involved some mix of switching to double opt-in, running a "permission pass" reconfirmation campaign, and watching your list size drop by 90%. Painful.
So why the relative quiet? I rather suspect that it is because the spam problem has evolved. There's more outright criminal garbage out there now. Phishing, malware, botnets. Bigger fish, in a sense. And Spamhaus spends a lot of time chasing that. Scarier threats, beyond marketing mail to single opt-in, unconfirmed addresses. It makes sense that they're focusing more on things more directly malicious.
But don't confuse less noise with a lack of risk.
Spamhaus still collects mountains of data. Their spamtrap network is massive. And if you're sending to enough unconfirmed, typo-ridden, or outdated email addresses, especially ones that never should've been on your list in the first place, in their estimation, you can still find yourself listed.
I've spoken with deliverability folks at multiple ESPs who've dealt with Spamhaus listings in 2025. It still happens. And it's still painful.
Here's just a partial list of providers that reject mail based on Spamhaus listings: Apple iCloud, CenturyLink, Charter, Cloudmark, Microsoft, Proofpoint, Rackspace, Yahoo. That's most of MAGY right there. Add Bell in Canada. Orange and SFR in France. Freenet in Germany. Seeweb in Italy. It goes on.
If you're listed on Spamhaus, you don't just take a minor hit. You fully lose the ability to deliver mail at some major ISPs and filters. That's real money, real lost engagement, real deliverability damage.
So yes, Spamhaus still matters in 2025.
Want to avoid getting listed? It's usually not rocket science. Their traps are full of mail to addresses that never confirmed. So don't send to unconfirmed addresses. Use double opt-in. It really is that simple, and that's why I advocate for it. To avoid the headache that things like a Spamhaus listing can cause.
Want to learn more? I interviewed Andrew Barrett from Spamhaus back in December 2024, find the video here.
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