on 3/18/2002 4:15 PM, Adam Bailey at [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: > On 3/15/02 11:25 PM, Jim Robertson <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > >> A week or two ago someone suggested using a "Bouncer" applescript as an >> anti-spam weapon. I obtained a copy and tried it. The notion is that the >> spam recipient can extricate himself from the spam recipient list by telling >> the sender that the email address to which the spam was sent is invalid. >> >> The only problem with this on the half dozen spam bounces I've tried is that >> the spammer has, in each instance, faked his own email address, so there's >> no where to bounce the message TOO! > > That's correct. Bouncing junk email back to the sender is largely worthless. > Frequently these addresses are forged, because bulk marketers don't *want* > bounces. In fact, if you ever see a raw address list, you'll find it's full > of a lot of junk -- such as munged addresses and even Message-IDs. This is > because the harvesters sell their lists based on how many "addresses" are in > it, without actually caring if the addresses are valid. > > Besides, in rare cases where the bounce actually gets through to the sender, > they can easily tell if it's fake. Assuming they don't ignore it in the > first place for the above reasons. I've been bouncing certain unforged > messages using procmail for years, and they still come. > > The best time to bounce junk email is during the SMTP transaction. By the > time it gets to Entourage, it's too late.
Unfortunately, even if you bounce an address at the end of a multi-hop SMTP connection, you can't tell the original SMTP host that the e-mail address was bad. I've looked at both legitimate bounces and those generated by Bouncer. Yes there are differences, but you have to look for them. -- Glenn L. Austin <>< <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Phone: (360) 281-5436 -- To unsubscribe: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> archives: <http://www.mail-archive.com/entourage-talk%40lists.letterrip.com/> old-archive: <http://www.mail-archive.com/entourage-talk%40lists.boingo.com/>
