Automatic Responses - Out of Office (Vacation) Messages

Automatic Responses (Mailwasher 'bounces', Challenge/Response, Out Of Office replies, and any email that is answered automatically with another email) were useful until the spammers and virus/worm writers started forging the 'From.' In fact, it used to be common practice for ISPs to accept all email and then respond with 'undeliverable' if the mailbox was no longer available.

Today spam does not only come directly to you, but also is 'bounced' to you because your email address is forged in the 'From.' (The spammers use the same lists they use to to send spam to get addresses to forge in the 'From.') Automatic responses have become the same problem as spam and cannot be used any longer unless they can set to filter out forged reply to addresses. They are objectionable to recipients who never sent the original email. Automatic Responses can even cause denial of service to innocent third parties. (Jeff G. receives hundreds of these Automatic Responses every day.)

Such Automatic Responses (also called Misdirected Bounces) are now considered abusive and reportable by SpamCop per the "Messages which may be reported" section of On what type of email should I (not) use SpamCop?∞

The mailserver that is sending Automatic Responses can be listed on the SpamCop Blocklist by reports from users or spam traps. Some ISPs use the SpamCop Blocklist to either return (reject at server) any email from such mailservers. Others may simply delete such emails.

If your email service uses any kind of Auto Responses, your email may be blocked or tagged as spam by those ISPs who use the SpamCop Blocklist.

The several types of auto-responders and auto-responses are detailed in Why are auto-responders (and delayed bounces) bad?∞.

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CategorySpamCopBlockingList

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