How it works
This one is built to pass a glance. The visible sender looks right, with a corporate-sounding name and maybe a domain close to a real sponsor like Squarespace. But the reply-to address is quietly set to something else, usually a personal Gmail or Outlook inbox, sometimes a throwaway. You read the impressive from line, hit reply, and your message lands in a stranger's personal mailbox without you noticing the switch. The same trick often introduces a manager, an escrow agent, or a finance department as the person you will actually deal with, which is just a way to route you to another personal inbox that handles the money. The real point is to separate the trustworthy-looking identity you saw from the untrustworthy address you are now talking to. Squarespace and other established sponsors run outreach from their own domain, and replies to a genuine Squarespace email go back to squarespace.com, not to a personal account.
The tell-tale signals
- The from address looks corporate, but replies are routed to a different, personal, or throwaway inbox. Mail apps hide this by default, so it is worth opening the headers to see the reply-to.
- A manager, agent, or escrow middleman is introduced as the contact for money, on a mailbox that has nothing to do with the brand.
- The display name is dressed up to read like the brand while the actual sending address is something else entirely.
- The registrable domain that replies go to does not match the brand's real domain.
What to do
Before you answer, check where a reply will actually go. In your mail client, expand the message details or view the original to see the reply-to address, and compare its domain to the sender's and to the brand's real one. If they differ, do not reply into the thread. Instead, find the brand's partnerships contact on its official website and start fresh there. Be especially wary of any manager or escrow party you are handed inside a cold email, because a real brand keeps its own name on the money conversation. When the visible identity and the reply address disagree, trust the address, not the name.