Hi. I've tried sending Spam emails back by using the Return Path from the headers. It cleared a lot of my Spam, but now I'm receiving even more than before.
Should I continue to send them back via Return Path or am I actually just confirming to the spammer that my email is real? I've reverted to simply deleting all Spam but is this really all we can do?
iMac 21.5″, macOS 10.15
Replying to spam and unsubscribing from spam confirms the email address works, and that the recipient (you) is willing to engage. That increases the value of the email address for resale, and gets more spam.
And if the return path processing is spoofed or if a breached system is involved, or if the headers are otherwise wrong or malformed, you are spamming somebody not the spammer. Bouncing messages asynchronous to the arrival is rude; it’s an indication of a mis-configured mail server.
Both incidentally, and variously also deliberately, spam is sent with the specific intent of blocking or overloading somebody unrelated; of causing others to reply, and creating a Distributed Denial of Service against somebody.
If you can’t detect and block the spam immediately during the incoming SMTP connection and reject it then, then drop the detected spam message. Don’t DDoS what can be unrelated people, and people already coping with a breach.
Replying to spam and unsubscribing from spam confirms the email address works, and that the recipient (you) is willing to engage. That increases the value of the email address for resale, and gets more spam.
And if the return path processing is spoofed or if a breached system is involved, or if the headers are otherwise wrong or malformed, you are spamming somebody not the spammer. Bouncing messages asynchronous to the arrival is rude; it’s an indication of a mis-configured mail server.
Both incidentally, and variously also deliberately, spam is sent with the specific intent of blocking or overloading somebody unrelated; of causing others to reply, and creating a Distributed Denial of Service against somebody.
If you can’t detect and block the spam immediately during the incoming SMTP connection and reject it then, then drop the detected spam message. Don’t DDoS what can be unrelated people, and people already coping with a breach.
That’s what I was wondering and thanks for confirming my fears
Spam. Does returning spam via the Return Path actually make you receive more Spam?
