Eternal life

[wryghta]

Hi, I just wondered. Does any spammer EVER filter a list to remove dead accounts? My SMTP server can terminate an RBL flagged connection by responding to a RCPT to with a "User does not exist" code. But if spammers ignore this - what's the point?

I noticed that I am getting about 500 RECPT TO unknown "accounts" at my domain every hour. So either spammers are doing random account tests, or some email lists are 99% random names before they are sold.

Any thoughts?

[petzl]

spammers rely on MASS mailing millions and millions of emails sent so non-exsitant accounts mean little: recent example

Sydney Morning Herald

Jeremy Jaynes was making suckers of everyone. Not any more, writes Mark Coultan.

The messages were typical spam, those time-wasting emails that clog inboxes everywhere.

One promised riches on the stockmarket. Another offered software that would erase your computer's internet history. Another offered to make you a fortune working from home as a "FedEx refund processor". Each offer cost $US39.95 ($52).

It is unlikely those who paid felt they got value for money; they were only diverted to other websites. For Jeremy Jaynes, there was a sucker born every minute, almost literally. From his house in North Carolina, he sent millions of these messages.

As Jeremy James and Gaven Stubberfield, he became one of the world's biggest spammers - No.8 on the list kept by the website Spamhaus.

Spammers work on the law of averages. If Jaynes sent out 1 million messages, and only 0.1 per cent of people responded, he still made $US39,950.

By the time Virginian police arrested him, Jaynes was making an estimated $US500,000 to $US750,000 a month. He owned a million-dollar house, a restaurant and a Maserati and was considered a respectable businessmen. He also helped renovate housing for the poor.