Spamcop.net RBL blocking emails by mistake?

[Jon Radel]

James L. Day wrote:
> Excuse me, but why would a secret e-mail address at a spamtrap send a
> message to an auto-responder?  It wouldn't be secret for very long if it
> were sending out e-mail messages...

1)  Wrong question.  More useful question:  Why would somebody, say a
spammer, use an address other than one of their own, say a spamtrap
address found on their mailing list, as the purported source of e-mail?
 Answer:  Left as an exercise for the reader.

2)  Flawed premise.  Spamtrap addresses are much more useful if they are
*not* secret.  You just take care to publish them in places from which
spammers harvest addresses, but in a fashion that makes clear to any
reasonably mindful human that stumbles across it that this address is
best not used for real correspondence.  A secret spamtrap address would
be of some use against dictionary address generation, but in general you
*want* your spamtrap addresses to be on the spammers lists.

--Jon Radel