Deluged by bounce notifications - Spamcop unusable?

[organictelly]

A few days ago I checked my Spamcop account and found I had received over a thousand emails overnight. Practically all of them were bounce notifications for emails not originating with me and they were still flooding in! Most contained a fake reference to one or other of my email addresses.

In order to stem the tide I cancelled my diversion to Spamcop and set up a new ID, setting my provider's filters to drop all other emails. I then emailed my friends and important contacts with the new email address.

Over some considerable time I've been getting tired of reporting reams of spam several times a day - it seems pointless and it doesn't stop coming. Even with all the filters selected on my Spamcop account and the tolerance set as low as possible I still get tons of it. Even checking the 'whitelist only' box has no effect - it still comes flooding in even though the sources are not on my whitelist.

My Spamcop account is up for renewal but I'm not sure it's worthwhile. I think it's simpler just to have a regular change of email address and to use an image-based format when the address needs to be publicly viewable. Reminds me of the timer-setting scenario in the tv programme 'Lost'.

[agsteele]

A few days ago I checked my Spamcop account and found I had received over a thousand emails overnight. Practically all of them were bounce notifications for emails not originating with me and they were still flooding in! Most contained a fake reference to one or other of my email addresses.

You don't say that you are using a SpamCop flat-rate Email account but that is what I'm reading between the lines. Maybe this thread should be in the Email forum.

Neither am I sure what you wanted to happen with these bounces. This is a not uncommon problem where spammers forge someone's Email address as the sender so all these unsolicited bounces then flood in.

Of course, you are permitted to report them but some users prefer to simply delete them. You can use your mailbox filters to move the bounces to a folder whenever you open webmail. You may have a whitelist entry for your domain rather than individual Email addresses - [at]yourdomain rather than yourmailbox[at]yourdomain

But spam filtering is one of the main benefits of the SpamCop mailbox from my perspective. Mine captures hundreds of items of spam each day making my use of Email much easier. Changing Email address with such regularity as you propose just wouldn't work for most folk.

Andrew

[Farelf]

To add a little to Andrew's response. Delayed bounces are an unfortunately frequent occurrence - but they usually go away when the spammers stop using your address (move on to the next on the list). Some discussion to be found in FAQ Entry: Why am I getting all these bounces? - Note the bounces are "reportable", that is, the ignorant admins or individuals can be "educated" as to the error of their ways.

There are many different ways to use SC - there has to be a more satisfactory way for you too. Some discussion at How We Use SpamCop, Detailed Examples. Maybe you need to implement some country filters or something?

[Derek T]

Over some considerable time I've been getting tired of reporting reams of spam several times a day - it seems pointless and it doesn't stop coming. Even with all the filters selected on my Spamcop account and the tolerance set as low as possible I still get tons of it.

If you thought having a SpamCop account would reduce the amount of spam you receive then you were sadly deluded. SpamCop does what it recommends others do: uses its blocklists to divert into heldmail, rather than reject. The 'point' of reporting is to feed the blocklist and keep it up-to-date. Reporting misdirected bounces is part of the battle - giving admins the 'heads-up' that it's no longer acceptable behaviour.

[dra007]

I have to agree with organi that filtering is not perfect when using spamcop alone. I have only improved that feature by adding spampal to my e-mail client. Given the ever increasing amount of spam e-mail, even that add on is so slow I often end up moving much of the spam to the heldmail folder manually.

[Telarin]

One thing you may want to check is your whitelist. Make sure you don't have yourself whitelisted unless you really have a need to send yourself email. Spammers love sending email from your own address to your address because many people list their own email address in their whitelist "just in case".

[dra007]

Thanks Will,

I have noticed that myself, but only in a relatively small fraction of spam that gets past the filters..

[StevenUnderwood]

Does anyone know why this showed up in the SpamCop Discussion > Discussions & Observations > How to use .... > SpamCop Filtered E-Mail Account section today? Was going to move it out but figured it was not originally here so would ask the question.

[Wazoo]

That'd have been me .... phone ringing, knock at the dorr, and I thought I'd do the quick move before getting up ... oops ....

Now sitting where it seems to belong .....