That's exactly right.  Sending unsolicited mail to innocent third parties makes you a spammer.  With the rampant use by spammers of trojaned Windows boxes on broadband networks that do not restrict outgoing port 25 access, it is virtually impossible to determine in an automated way the true source of the message.  In many cases, it is impossible even by skilled sysadmins.  The actual sender is only acting as a remote controlled proxy for the spammer, and there may not be any trace left in the message of the identity of the spammer.
 
Even if you could determine the true origin of a particular piece of spam, creating a fake "bounce" after your incoming MX has accepted the message is a very bad practice and will not accomplish anything.  Messages can only be bounced by bona-fide mail receiving systems (MTA's), not end-user mail clients (MUA's).  Bounces use special provisions of the SMTP protocol that only an MTA can do.  It will be obvious at the receiving end of the "bounce" that it is a forgery by an end-user MUA, not a real bounce from an MTA.  Such a forged bounce will be simply ignored, and is actually proof that the spam was delivered.  If anything, you have just confirmed that your address is live and you did receive the spam.

--

Seth Goodman

-----Original Message-----
From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]On Behalf Of Coe, Bob
Sent: Wednesday, June 08, 2005 4:42 PM
To: iancawley
Cc: [email protected]
Subject: Re: [Spambayes] Bouncing...

That's been brought up several times, and it's dealt with in the Spambayes FAQ. The consensus seems to be that it's a bad idea - adds to network traffic, and most origin addresses are forged anyway. So the poor sap who gets the bounce messages isn't the spammer who sent out the crap. (I've been that poor sap on several occasions, so I see their point.) 
_______________________________________________
[email protected]
http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/spambayes
Check the FAQ before asking: http://spambayes.sf.net/faq.html

Reply via email to