Catch all mailboxes (Why am I getting all these bounces)

[Pete in Tampa]

I have my own domain, so that I will not have to change my email address when I change providers. I get very little spam, as it all goes to spamcop.

I maintain a catchall mailbox, which receives anything sent to my domain that does not match one of the separate email accounts. I use this with web registrations so that I know where spam is comming from (ie: spamcop[at]mydomain.com) This way I know if someone sells/provides my email address to marketers. I get a lot of bounces, with forged returns.

I had an email converstion with a receipient of a spamcop bounce notification, telling me that the forged email return address showed as being valid, and that it was not his fault for sending me the bounce.

Am I contributing to the problem?

[Miss Betsy]

Am I contributing to the problem?

No, you are not contributing to the problem. The person who is sending the bounce is the one who is contributing to the problem.

You might look here as well as at the official spamcop pages about misdirected bounces to get information to tell the /real/ person who is contributing to the problem. Why Bounces are bad This topic is aimed at people who are upset because they are getting the bounces which could be modified to show this person /why/ his actions are not acceptable. At the end, there is more information that might convince him. Between the official explanation and this one, you can surely make a really good argument.

Miss Betsy

[StevenUnderwood]

No, bouncing messages is bad and needs to be stopped where it is found.

However, it is a strong suggestion to turn off the catchall and only enable the specific addresses you have authorized. This suggestion even comes from the owner of the spamcop email service. By enabling the catchall, your provider and spamcop both need to process numerous email messages that are known to be invalid. Some of those messages are likely to slip through the filters, requiring you wade through those.

[Pete in Tampa]

Thanks Steven,

This is why I posted the question. I have no filters, and am willing to process the bounces. It is a question of limiting the amount of bounce mail vs allowing the bounce and trying to get the offending mail servers to stop bouncing.

I am more interested in working to identify and stop spammers for everyone, than just for my mailboxes.

[Wazoo]

I maintain a catchall mailbox, which receives anything sent to my domain that does not match one of the separate email accounts.

That is the both the positive and negative aspects of a catch-all account.

I had an email converstion with a receipient of a spamcop bounce notification, telling me that the forged email return address showed as being valid, and that it was not his fault for sending me the bounce.

I may not be groking this properly, but if I had to guess, I really think what was meant: the forged address e-mail didn't bounce, therefore seen as "valid" .... to go another step farther, perhaps your contact point even tried a manual SMTP connection and did not receive a "failed" response .. back to your catch-all accepting "any" address .... the possuble way to "verify" that the address was "valid" is to send an e-mail to it and receive a reply from that address holder .... which you appear to have done, actually ... therefore making another notch in the "address is valid" decision process ...

Am I contributing to the problem?

As the recipient .... no.

As you're accepting all this e-mail, sending out no 'bad' rejection notices ... no

Reporting the spam ... no

[Miss Betsy]

So, did you convince your email correspondent that bounces are bad?

Miss Betsy