Spammers' use of your own e-mail addresses

[jwcarusosr]

Although unscientific, I find an increasing use of my own domain names (with wildly verying prefixes - user names) in the source of the spam that I receive and runs through my server. I host about 50 domains and a couple of hundred different accounts and aliases.

I am concerned that reporting by me or other users my be causing some of the e-mail to be blocked by SpamCop or other ISPs or RBLs.

Is my fear justified?

I've submitted the Mailhost info for the server; does this protect me from false positives?

[My server being blamed as the source of spam using one of my domains.]

I routinely check to assure that the server is not an open relay. Thanks. SpamCop's great.

Adding silly emoticon.

[StevenUnderwood]

If by "source of the spam" you mean the email address the message states it came from, spamcop does not use that information as it is too easily forged.

If you mean that after parsing you are seeing your own domain as the place where reports are being sent to, then there is possibly a configuration problem and spamcop can not see the link to where your servers received the message. A tracking URL could help determine what the problem is.

And yes, the Mailhost configuration is designed to tell spamcop what a normal, correct path looks like for your messages so it can make sure not to report those IP addresses. However, if your other users have not configured mailhosts for their accounts, it is not being used by them.