Name planted on a list by a list owner to monitor use of a rented list and to detect unauthorized usage; also called decoy name, dummy, seed name. Promotions sent to the salt name are reported to the list owner. The salt name may be that of a real person (see real seeds) or may be a false name created for this purpose.
Salts can also be used for other purposes: for example, (1) to monitor delivery time by including salts from various geographic locations who report the date of receipt; (2) to monitor the accuracy of lettershop work, allowing the lettershop user to check whether the package components were inserted correctly; and (3) to monitor the efficiency of a fulfillment operation, to see if orders are filled correctly and customer questions are answered. Cash salts are also sometimes placed in letter trays of incoming mail to monitor whether mail-opening clerks are handling cash receipts correctly.
