someone is using my email address to spam, is there a way to stop this ?

[Robert Brockway]

On Sat, 9 Aug 2008, Phillip Mills wrote:

> On Aug 9, 2008, at 7:24 PM, Robert Brockway wrote:
>
>> It's an RFC 2821/2822 requirement.
>
> That really doesn't strike me as a valid argument for doing something that is 
> ineffective at achieving its purpose and abusive of an innocent 3rd party.

Hi Phillip.  I agree with dropping a bounce if it is positively identified 
as spam (and many sites do) but as we know spotting spam isn't always 
easy.

I read your email like you were suggesting _all_ bounces should be dropped 
which is why I mentioned the RFCs.

It seems we may have been talking at cross purposes.  My email was based 
on the belief that the backscatter had not been dropped as spam and then 
I was discussing how to avoid this problem.

> I don't know all the options for spam bounces, but some that would be clear 
> improvements are:
> - fix RFCs that didn't take forgery into account

This probably will happen.  Common practice is to drop backscatter spam if 
it is identified and the RFCs are periodically updated to match practice.

> - apply some intelligence to the software so that it bounces to the nearest 
> "received from" point (which can then take whatever action it needs to)

When the MTA rejects receipt of an email the sender is supposed to take it 
up and deal with it.  Spammers don't of course.

> - simply drop the message so as to stop making the problem worse

This is the common approach.

Cheers,

Rob

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