Bouncing Spam... Does it help? What's your experience? - Tilted Forum Project Discussion Community

MMM-A · 04-23-2003, 02:40 PM

I've been experimenting with being aggressive with spam by bouncing emails back.

I'm not talking about BLOCKING email (which amounts to just filtering spam out before it gets in your inbox), but, rather BOUNCING: actively trying to send a message back to the spammer to fake that your email address is not valid.

Originally, I was using an old, no longer supported program called BSM found at: ftp://ftp.pcworld.co.nz/pcworld/files/Apr2002/BSM18.zip

Later I discovered a more current program at: http://www.mailwasher.net

After a month of paying attention to the job, it seems to be paying off. I've gone from 20 or 30 spams a day to 1, 2, or none.

Now that some of the virus scanner companies are offering spam management (bouncing), too, I expect more people are trying it.

So... the BIG question: Does it help? Not help? Please relate your experience so far.

(By the way, I've found that running my own SMTP server allows me to delete bounces that don't have valid email addresses without my ISP's email daemon bounces back to me.... I've been using inframail for years (www.infradig.com). It's free (the personal version), but I don't, necessarily recommend it because it's NOT for the novice. It'd take a sysadmin to set it up and maintain it. Search for a more user friendly program if you want to try this.)

The_Dude · 04-23-2003, 03:22 PM

i use hotmail and i block (not the email adress, but the entire domain) from which a junk mail comes and i'm clean for a while now

Boner · 04-23-2003, 03:44 PM

I don't think it helps.

I manage a private mail server that has around ~100 accounts on it. The spam problem started getting unbearable last year, so I started implementing new measures.

- I now have at least 3 RBL type lists running. That helped a lot. You do have to watch the logs though. Many times legit users get snagged.

- SpamAssassin works well, but does not send a bounce.

I haven't found that bounces do any good. The same idiots keep trying to bang the heck out of the machine. For a while I started firewalling them out, but lately I've started tarpitting the worst offenders.

Boner · 04-23-2003, 03:45 PM

Oh yeah, one last thing.

One very simple protective measure is to configure your MTA to reject messages from domains that do not exist. That will snag quite a few.

ChipX86 · 04-23-2003, 03:58 PM

Bouncing spam rarely does any good. First of all, <i>if</i> the domain and e-mail address is valid and not temporary, then it's likely that it's some innocent guy's address. Spammers nowadays send from some random guy's address. This has caused a lot of innocent people a lot of frustration.

The best solution is to setup <a href="http://www.spamassassin.org/">SpamAssassin</a> and configure it correctly. This would be if you used Linux. I do not believe it's been setup to work with Windows. If you run Windows, perhaps see if your ISP would setup spamassassin for your account specifically, though it may not catch all e-mail.

But back to the original point, you do more harm than good with bouncing. I wouldn't recommend pursuing it at all.

04-23-2003, 02:40 PM	#1 (permalink)
MMM-A Upright	Bouncing Spam... Does it help? What's your experience? I've been experimenting with being aggressive with spam by bouncing emails back. I'm not talking about BLOCKING email (which amounts to just filtering spam out before it gets in your inbox), but, rather BOUNCING: actively trying to send a message back to the spammer to fake that your email address is not valid. Originally, I was using an old, no longer supported program called BSM found at: ftp://ftp.pcworld.co.nz/pcworld/files/Apr2002/BSM18.zip Later I discovered a more current program at: http://www.mailwasher.net After a month of paying attention to the job, it seems to be paying off. I've gone from 20 or 30 spams a day to 1, 2, or none. Now that some of the virus scanner companies are offering spam management (bouncing), too, I expect more people are trying it. So... the BIG question: Does it help? Not help? Please relate your experience so far. (By the way, I've found that running my own SMTP server allows me to delete bounces that don't have valid email addresses without my ISP's email daemon bounces back to me.... I've been using inframail for years (www.infradig.com). It's free (the personal version), but I don't, necessarily recommend it because it's NOT for the novice. It'd take a sysadmin to set it up and maintain it. Search for a more user friendly program if you want to try this.) Last edited by MMM-A; 04-23-2003 at 03:46 PM..

04-23-2003, 03:22 PM	#2 (permalink)
The_Dude The GrandDaddy of them all! Location: Austin, TX	i use hotmail and i block (not the email adress, but the entire domain) from which a junk mail comes and i'm clean for a while now __________________ "Luck is what happens when preparation meets opportunity." - Darrel K Royal

04-23-2003, 03:44 PM	#3 (permalink)
Boner Insane Location: Plugged In	I don't think it helps. I manage a private mail server that has around ~100 accounts on it. The spam problem started getting unbearable last year, so I started implementing new measures. - I now have at least 3 RBL type lists running. That helped a lot. You do have to watch the logs though. Many times legit users get snagged. - SpamAssassin works well, but does not send a bounce. I haven't found that bounces do any good. The same idiots keep trying to bang the heck out of the machine. For a while I started firewalling them out, but lately I've started tarpitting the worst offenders.

04-23-2003, 03:45 PM	#4 (permalink)
Boner Insane Location: Plugged In	Oh yeah, one last thing. One very simple protective measure is to configure your MTA to reject messages from domains that do not exist. That will snag quite a few.

04-23-2003, 03:58 PM	#5 (permalink)
ChipX86 Tilted	Bouncing spam rarely does any good. First of all, <i>if</i> the domain and e-mail address is valid and not temporary, then it's likely that it's some innocent guy's address. Spammers nowadays send from some random guy's address. This has caused a lot of innocent people a lot of frustration. The best solution is to setup <a href="http://www.spamassassin.org/">SpamAssassin</a> and configure it correctly. This would be if you used Linux. I do not believe it's been setup to work with Windows. If you run Windows, perhaps see if your ISP would setup spamassassin for your account specifically, though it may not catch all e-mail. But back to the original point, you do more harm than good with bouncing. I wouldn't recommend pursuing it at all.