[thelist] forged FROM: in emails

[Erik Mattheis]

On Saturday, February 22, 2003, at 09:16  PM, Hugh Blair wrote:
>> -----Original Message-----
>> On Behalf Of Erik Mattheis
>>
>> A spammer has decided to use a non-existing mail box of a
>> domain I host as a forged FROM:
>>
>
> If the messages are always the same "xxxx at domain.com", then
> set up a forwarder on just that address to:
> anything at sparkingwire.com  - the perfect dead end.
>
> http://sparkingwire.com/

Well, the situation is this: the spammer's (maybe spammers'?) list(s)
contain a lot of invalid emails. And because the FROM: is forged as my
client, the bounces come from the daemon of the host of the invalid
email.

I can have my email server delete those bounces as they come in, so
using sparkingwire would result in even more wasted bandwidth for my
client.

Regarding Sparking wire's statement:

<quote>
We would suggest you use it for things such as software registration,
any web site that requires you to provide an email address that you
would rather not provide a real email address for [...]
</quote>

That can only be "cheating" at best. I adhire to the notion that if one
uses a service or product, one should abide by it's provider's terms. I
want people to respect the requirements I and my clients impose ... and
I've yet to come across a service or product that was my only option
and forced me to do something that was unacceptable to me. (sidenote:
if I can't use my @yahoo address for a registration, I use
[companyname]@[mydomain] - and I've yet to receive unsolicited mail to
those addresses.)

That is not to say it's a great idea to run up spammers' bandwidth
bills ... as long as the Internet in general can handle it, I'm all for
that!
-----------------------
Erik Mattheis
GoZz Digital
<http://goZz.com/>
Flash and ColdFusion Development
Minneapolis, MN
-----------------------