On Thursday, August 21, 2003, 12:21:06 PM, Cyberspace Publishing commented:
CP> Before you shoot yourself in the foot with it, though, you might CP> want to read my article "Am I Dumb Or Dumber?" posted at CP> http://www.internet-marketing-forum.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=2344 CP> where I explain how to properly configure 'bouncing' so you don't CP> end up increasing your spam instead of decreasing it the way I CP> did! ;-) Tom, you wrote some things in your article that I think are technically incorrect. I'm a big fan of Mailwasher, but I disabled the supposed "bounce" feature a long time ago. The reason - it is not a true "bounce" and will not be recognized by the spammers as such. But since spammers often use forged email addresses in the "From" field, or nonexistent return emails, it WILL increase the overall volume of email, help to contribute to server overload in general, and will generate even more bounce-backs to you. You wrote: CP> For this example, let's say your email address is CP> [EMAIL PROTECTED] Under the third tab, where it wants CP> an email address to put into the "From" field, instead CP> of putting [EMAIL PROTECTED], you put CP> [EMAIL PROTECTED] Now what happens is that the CP> bounced email received by the spammer looks like it CP> really did come from the mail server, and that your CP> address really is no longer valid. They will remove the CP> address from their list, and you should receive no CP> further email from them. This is not true. It makes the Mailwasher message look like what YOU receive when you see a bounce message, but it is not a true bounce. A true bounce occurs at the MTA level, when the email is rejected by Sendmail or Qmail or whatever program is being used. The bounce is IMMEDIATE and it also includes appropriate RFC codes. Spammers who purge inactive names from their lists will have software that recognizes those server-initiated bounces, but their software is not fooled at all by an email from Mailwasher configured to look like a bounce. The headers on your Mailwasher fake bounce will tell the true story, including routing information. In any case, the majority of spammers probably don't bother cleaning their lists, and even if Spammer A removes your email, if he has sold his list to Spammers B,C, & D, your fake bounce will do no good. On the other hand, as noted, it really makes things a lot worse for your ISP. For example, read this: http://www.asde.com/support/mailwash/mailwash.html http://tinyurl.com/krqi (Note - this leads to a post at the computercops.biz site - I do not agree with the abrasive tone of the poster, but the information in the initial posts on that page plus ensuing discussion pretty much reflects the point I am trying to get across) -Abigail ____ � The WDVL Discussion List from WDVL.COM � ____ To Join wdvltalk, Send An Email To: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Send Your Posts To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] To set a personal password send an email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the words: "set WDVLTALK pw=yourpassword" in the body of the email. To change subscription settings to the wdvltalk digest version: http://wdvl.internet.com/WDVL/Forum/#sub ________________ http://www.wdvl.com _______________________ You are currently subscribed to wdvltalk as: [EMAIL PROTECTED] To unsubscribe send a blank email to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
