Someone is using my domain as return address to spam

[ed146]

A spammer is using my domain as a return address to spam the heck out of people. Lately I am getting 500 e-mail + of "failed to deliver" when I check my e-mail.

What needs to be done about bystander like myself preventing this from happening?

Thanks for future advice

[Leosghost]

You can't do anything about it ..however dont worry ;)..the return addy is being generated on the infected machines that have your addy in them ..those that don't have your addy don't get your adress as return they get someone elses ..

Unless your server is compromised ( ask your host to check for you and tighten up old scripts ..remove/ disable "squirrel" and "horde" ) you have little or nothing to worry about ..

set your server mail to send all mail to "unknown adresses" to "black hole" and it should stop ..

AOL have some wiggy spam lists ..but then they send out about 10 to 20 % of all spam via their throw away sign up accounts so should you care what they think?

[inbound]

A better way to combat this is to send the rougue email to the originator (if you can pinpoint them).

I have a popular domain for emails (free for a group of sports supporters), and it was chosen at random as the return address for a spam campaign. I found out who was behind it and redirected all spam back to their server, it soon stopped the spam, they just move on to the next victim.

[Leosghost]

Redirecting spam back to the spammer domain is as actually as illegal as sending it out .( cos you use the networks bandwidth and ressouces ).straight "bouncing" to the sending domain isn't ..except that in his case these no doubt are "zombie boxes" so their owners probably don't know they are programmed to send the stuff ..and are unaware that it is happening when they are surfing or merely connected or on their usual business.

blackholing it is effective and legal..

it will stop and there will be no risk of being labelled spammer himself

[RailMan]

i have similar problems with my email addresses being used as random return addresses
fortunately the damage it does is minimal - the spam block lists block IP addresses, not email addresses / domains, so i just need to filter out the failure emails

this only happens on old email addresses where i used to display email addresses normally - they almost certainly got picked up by email harvesters back then - once the spammers have your email address, there's nothing you can do to stop them spamming

for the last few years i've been hiding email addresses in javascript and blocking harvesters with htaccess files - this seems to work, although i guess it's only a matter of time before one of the spammers finds another email address of mine .........

[ciscoforum]

Google SPF :)

[Stefan]

A spammer is using my domain as a return address to spam the heck out of people.

Yep, and you usually get spam email in pairs - one to you, and a ricochet from someone else that hits you with the failure (for the out of date addys in the spam program), because they're using your email addy for spoofing. They are the scum of the earth, they totally pollute my email, and if I could find them and take a machete to them, I'd very much enjoy it. Always "meds", "software", "ci*alis" (whatever the hell that is), and mortgages. I hate those creeps with every cell of my body. They're sitting there in their underwear, no doubt, clicking once and sending millions of that crap planet-wide. They should be rounded-up and hung in the main square. (Imho, etc).

[Stefan]

Please excuse my post above. It should be "hanged" in the main square.

[larryhatch]

Stefan: Are you sure 'hung' is improper grammar?
Hanged sounds OK, but hung doesn't set off my usual
set of grammar bells. -Larry

[Leosghost]

Pictures are hung ..people are hanged ( depending on your local customs and proximity to Stefan ;)..

Larry ..when someone is referred to as being "well hung" they are not talking about "by the neck" ;)

[Stefan]

Yes, to bring clarity to things and also cover all grammatical bases - they should be hung, hanged, shot, drawn and quartered, and then urinated upon (maybe not in that precise order), all done in the main square, of course.

Hmm - might be a little messy, eh? Let's make the drawn and quartered part optional.

:-)