Most reports are being bounced

[elind]

I notice on my reports that vitually all are being bounced now. Does that mean that reporting is becoming useless?

[Miss Betsy]

No, because spamcop will add that IP address to the blocklist (if it is the source). You should see that the reports are going to 'devnull' pretty soon. There are different reasons for a lot of bounces, but if the reason is not fixed, then spamcop stops sending reports and just adds them to the blocklist.

Reports are only 'good' when they go to an ISP who wants to know if a spammer starts using their system. That ISP will cancel the account or fix the problem (if it is a compromised machine or one with an open relay, for instance). Someone who has left open a relay may suddenly start getting lots of reports and they are not prepared to handle it so their mailbox gets full. However, they will probably fix the problem.

Most spam comes from spammers who use ISPs who would rather have their money than stay off the spamcop blocklist. They don't bother to accept reports many times. And if they do, then they look for code information and either take the reporter off their list or send them more spam.

Miss Betsy

[elind]

Thanks. Althought I should add that I had not viewed my reports for some time and one day they all seemed to be bounces. After that I notice they are not all bounced, so perhaps there was a different problem that day.

[Miss Betsy]

Someone with more knowledge of the email system would have to guess at why there would be another problem. If it wasn't related to the spammers, then the abuse desks and spamcop would work it out because there are abuse desks that do pay attention to spamcop reports and want to get them so that they can stop spammers.

Miss Betsy