ATTENTION: Bounced Message Notification

B

Bill

All of a sudden, I've started getting this message. I
have plenty of storage on my system, none of the messages
are large. What could be causing this?
 
H

Herb Tyson [MVP]

There are a number of very bad viruses, etc. going around... resulting in
much higher bounce rates than in the past. Basically, a bounce notice
indicates that a mail server somewhere has rejected your email, possibly
because it thinks your message contains a virus.
 
G

Gary Smith

Herb Tyson said:
There are a number of very bad viruses, etc. going around... resulting in
much higher bounce rates than in the past. Basically, a bounce notice
indicates that a mail server somewhere has rejected your email, possibly
because it thinks your message contains a virus.

Frequently the bounced messages didn't actually come from you in the first
place. The current crop of virus/trojan/worm programs fake the From
addresses in the messages they send. When the target mailbox is full or
non-existent, the mail handler sends a notification back to the apparent
sender, who wasn't even involved in the transaction.

Some mail handlers will detect a virus attached to an incoming message and
send an announcement back to the apparent sender. Although that was
originally a helpful thing to do, it now does more harm than good and
should be discontinued. Even worse, some systems include the infected
attachment so the apparent sender, who may not have had a virus to begin
with, has a new opportunity to get one.
 
H

Herb Tyson [MVP]

I was, of course, referring only to what a legitimate bounce message
indicates.
;-) Here recently, many of us are seeing more bounce notices, but fewer of
them are legitimate.

In addition to your observations, some bounce notices are entirely bogus,
and are just a ruse to get you to open the email. Some contain ads the
sender is trying to trick you into viewing (or is trying to outsmart
anti-spam filters, since filters typically let bounce notices through), or,
worse, can contain viruses or worms.
 

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