Hidden dangers of bouncing spam

[Julian Field]

I don't advise anyone to use spamcop, I certainly won't use it on my own
systems. They are far too willing to list completely innocent people and it
is very difficult to get off their list again. I have heard dozens of
stories from people saying they were included somewhere in the mail headers
of a message they reported to spamcop, and spamcop listed them instead of
the spammer! :-(

At 22:28 13/02/2004, you wrote:
>  I just read something on the clamav list that got me thinking abut the
>recent threads about bouncing spam and the reasons not to do it.  It
>struck me that no-one brought up the hidden dangers of bouncing messages
>to the apparent senders of spam.  Perhaps this will help to persuade
>some of the doubters.  I'll let the original post speak for itself (this
>was from a thread about ASK - the annoying challenge response 'spam
>killer')
>
> >We used to offer ASK here... until spammers started using spamcop's
>
>spamtrap
>
> >accounts in their return address.
>
>
> >Spamcop didn't care that the messages were confirmations request.  They
>
>just
>
> >blacklisted us without notification.
>
>Thats a pretty good reason not to bounce spam in my book.

--
Julian Field
www.MailScanner.info
Professional Support Services at www.MailScanner.biz
MailScanner thanks transtec Computers for their support
PGP footprint: EE81 D763 3DB0 0BFD E1DC 7222 11F6 5947 1415 B654