Re: spam scanners

["Robert Holmgren" holmgren@xxxxxxxx]

** Reply to message from flash  on Thu, 03 Nov 2005 07:19:33
+0100


> Bouncing means that the sender gets an error message informing him that
> your eddress does not exist.

If the headers are forged, and the Return-Path is spoofed, as it almost always
is -- then what? You also get back a fair number of return bounces from the
purported originating ISP, i.e. you actually increase the volume of spam
(unless you play the same game and spoof your return address, or divert it to
your ISP's daemon). There's also the time lag problem -- true undeliverable
bounces are instantaneous. *If* they care about this, they can trap it.

> Deleting spam returns a minute GIF file to the sender confirming that
> the spam arrived, which is to say, that the destination eddress exists.

Wha??? How does that work? I DL my mail, I delete locally, and my client
(Polarbar, or the tiny Rexx GetMail that I wrote) rebounds a GIF? No way. Or
I delete on my ISP's mailserver, and that triggers the SMTP server to send a
GIF?

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Robert Holmgren
holmgren@xxxxxxxx
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