How long before an inactive becomes risky?
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Most inactives start becoming risky around 90 to 180 days with no opens or clicks. That's when mailbox providers begin marking addresses as potentially abandoned. When engagement drops, filters tighten and your inbox placement suffers.
At the 12-month mark, the risk jumps significantly. These old, silent addresses can be recycled into spam traps. ISPs repurpose abandoned mailboxes as monitoring tools. You send to what looks like a real person, but it's actually a trap that damages your sender score when you hit it.
The takeaway: the longer an address sits inactive, the higher your risk. Even one hit can ding your reputation. Start planning re-engagement before you hit that 90-day mark. If you haven't cleaned your list yet, use validation tools to catch recycled addresses before they hurt you.
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