Tool needed to return spam as "undeliverable"

[Mary]

I am looking for a tool which would allow me to mark incoming email as spam
and have it returned to the sender as "undeliverable". My email is displayed
in many places on the net where it can be harvested easily. I run an online
business and it simply isn't feasible to change my address very often. I
don't want to just send the garbage to a junk folder either, I want the
senders to think they have a bad address and remove it from their list.

Does anyone know of any 3p add-on products which would perform this
function? Does Microsoft have any plans for adding this feature?

Thanks,

 

[Diane Poremsky [MVP]]

So you can be a spammer too? Just delete it and move on - responding to it
just verifies your address is correct, assuming it's a real spammer you are
replying to and not a virus sending spam using your email address in the
from field.... in which case, the undeliverable will bounce too.

 

[Mary]

I believe you must have misunderstood the question. I wasn't suggesting
replying to junk emails. I am well aware of the concept of verifying email
addresses as valid. I am looking for a tool which would allow me to bounce an
email back to a sender as "undeliverable".

 

[Sue Mosher [MVP-Outlook]]

Why would you want to do that to the poor person whose address was probably spoofed by a spammer to provide the From address for the spam you got?

--
Sue Mosher, Outlook MVP
Author of Configuring Microsoft Outlook 2003

and Microsoft Outlook Programming - Jumpstart for
Administrators, Power Users, and Developers

 

[Brian Tillman]

I believe you must have misunderstood the question. I wasn't
suggesting replying to junk emails. I am well aware of the concept of
verifying email addresses as valid. I am looking for a tool which
would allow me to bounce an email back to a sender as "undeliverable".

That is a bad idea for multiple reasons.

 

[Judy Gleeson, MVP Outlook]

"bouncing an email back" is replying as far as a computer is concerned.

Judy Gleeson, MVP Outlook
Acorn Training and Consulting
www.acorntraining.com.au

Everyone - turn on your Advanced Toolbars and learn how to use the Field
Chooser and Group by Box!!

 

[Pat Willener]

This is a very bad idea, as you can be sure that the address in the
From: header does not belong to the spammer. It is some innocent
bystander's address that comes from the same source as your address.

If I receive bounces (fake or real ones) for messages that I have not
sent, I will report them the same way as regular spam.

I know that spam is a very annoying thing, especially when you receive
them in great volumes, but bouncing is definitely not the solution.
Better install a good spam filter that takes care of it.

 

[Chris Barnes]

I am looking for a tool which would allow me to mark incoming email
as spam and have it returned to the sender as "undeliverable". My
email is displayed in many places on the net where it can be
harvested easily. I run an online business and it simply isn't
feasible to change my address very often. I don't want to just send
the garbage to a junk folder either, I want the senders to think they
have a bad address and remove it from their list.

Does anyone know of any 3p add-on products which would perform this
function? Does Microsoft have any plans for adding this feature?

1) Anti-spam filtering where this happens is much better done at the MTA
(Mail Transfer Agent, eg Exchange, Sendmail, etc) level, not the MUA
(Mail User Agent, eg. Outlook). By the time it gets to your Inbox and
Outlook downloads it, sending it back will only verify that your address
is correct (even if your faked bounce makes it look like it isn't).

2) Replying back to spam in any fashion, even with an undeliverable
message, is a *VERY BAD IDEA*. 99% of spam has faked headers - your
"undeliverable" message itself will come back to you as a bounce. This
increases system overhead for both you as well as the 'net in general.

3) As an alternative to using an "undeliverable" message, look into both
SPF and greylisting.

4) Changing your email address to deal with spam never works. It is
only the lazy way out of using effective MTA-level filters.

--

+ + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + +
Chris Barnes AOL IM: CNBarnes
(e-mail address removed) Yahoo IM: chrisnbarnes
Computer Systems Manager MSN IM: (e-mail address removed)
Department of Physics ph: 979-845-7801
Texas A&M University fax: 979-845-2590

 

[BobR]

I get a lot of satisfaction from using Mailwasher. It 'bounces' any e-mail
you select for bouncing directly from your e-mail server. Obtainable from
http://www.mailwasher.net/

 

[Brian Tillman]

I get a lot of satisfaction from using Mailwasher. It 'bounces' any
e-mail you select for bouncing directly from your e-mail server.

Still a bad choice because chances are excellent you're bouncing it back to
an innocent victim whose address was hijacked.

 

[Diane Poremsky [MVP]]

Still a bad choice because chances are excellent you're bouncing it back

to an innocent victim whose address was hijacked.

Yeah... me. I had a domain highijacked almost two weeks ago. I only use it
for a private website and have the catchall address forwarded to my gmail
account. 15,000 bounces came back on Saturday alone - maybe 200 challenges
and 200 OOF. Granted, because the spammer makes up names ("jghjfngvm"
format) and gmail marks all but the OOF and challenge-response as spam, I
only get them because I use a catchall - it still creates unnecessary
network traffic. If it were my mail server, I would either have to accept
and drop the messages or reject the recipient and send the rejection back to
the senders mail server - and that would be a big load to handle.