>I(f and when a patterned tagged address becomes a problem, you can >just kill it. For example, I mostly provide bill-* addresses, but >for a long time my Usenet posts have carried Message-ID's of that >pattern. Spammers will slurp up anything that looks like an address, >so they grabbed some MID's. So I have these lines: > ><bill-050895*> = spamtrap ><bill-231195*> = spamtrap > >This kills off all mail sent to MID's of Usenet posts I made on 2 >days over 6 years ago....
I have what I call 'throwaway accounts' [EMAIL PROTECTED], [EMAIL PROTECTED], etc, that exist only in the router. I use these when I want to fill out a form on the internet or submit an e-mail address. These are live routes to me. When and if I get spam coming in on one of them, I delete the account. And herein lies my question: Is there going to be any real difference between deleting the router entry, or routing it to spamtrap or ERROR? Reason I ask this is related to questions I have about programs (such as Mail Siphon) which can be used to [manually] generate bounce messages. On the surface this seems a good idea, but aside from the problem of targeting the bounce to a useful address, I have also read that this bounce method is next to useless (the idea being that some spammers will act on bounces and remove addresses from their lists). The reason it would be useless is that any spammers that do act on a bounce would really act on the *initial response* of the mail server, not on any bounce received after an e-mail appears to have been accepted for delivery. For those vanishingly small number of spammers that might actually act on a bounce, is there any practical difference between deleting the router entry or just routing it to spamtrap/ERROR? A rejection, to a spammer looking at his logs, indicates a live (though difficult) target. 'Unknown user' might make a few take addresses off their 'high-quality' lists. Yes I know I'm giving the spammers way too much credit here, but I'm curious about any thoughts on the matter (including the usefulness or probable lack thereof regarding e-mail clients' bounce features). Stefan Jeglinski ############################################################# This message is sent to you because you are subscribed to the mailing list <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>. To unsubscribe, E-mail to: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To switch to the DIGEST mode, E-mail to <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To switch to the INDEX mode, E-mail to <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Send administrative queries to <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
