[SC-Help] Re: Help? Fraudulent email in the "from" of sp*m!

[Mike Easter]

Jodi Krangle wrote:

> I'm really hoping someone here has some advice for me...

There's not really any good news here.

> My business email address - jodi at internet-marketing-mm.com - is
> getting TONS of "mail undeliverable" messages (and I mean thousands a
> day) from some slimy sp*mmers who have put that email address in the
> "from" field of their mailouts.  :(

That can sometimes cause absolutely huge amounts of trouble, depending
upon the volume of 'belated bounces' you receive, it can fill up your
Inbox and actually cause you some service denial because of 'mailbox
full'.

> This has been going on for about five days not (maybe more) and it
> shows no sign of stopping.  It's EXTREMELY annoying.

Yes.

> I'm aware that when people report sp*m, it's reported by IP address
> and not necessarily by the actual email address listed in the mail...
> although I'm sure my email address IS being banned by some people who
> really think I'd be stupid enough to send out that crap, since the
> email address actually makes reference to "internet-marketing".

It is true that some foolish spam recipients click on 'block sender' as
a reaction to spam.  If there is some concordance between that
particular inane behavior and someone who you want to email, then you
could 'accidentally' be blocked by a foolish spammee who blocked your
addy as a sender on the basis of the spam they received with your addy
as the bogus From.

> Is there ANYTHING I can do about this?

No.  You can't even spamcop report the original spam items.  You /can/
report the belated bounces caused by those servers which are accepting
the spams and then creating newmails addressed to the bogus From.  That
behavior creates what is called 'backscatter' and it is abusive and can
be reported.  There's nothing you can do about stopping the originator
of the spam, any more than usual.  You can manually report the spam
source of the original item -- but it is probably just an abused proxy.

> Does anyone have any advice
> for me here?  I'm getting more than a little desperate.

Try to handle your Inbox in a manner that is non-frustrating.   If you
can automate it, do so.

-- 
Mike Easter
kibitzer, not SC admin