IP address reputation, BorderWare

[Chris Yuzik]

Denis Croombs wrote:
> Over 90% of the email that the 200+ domains I protect is spam from spoofed
> email address's, why should I send an email to these poor sods who have had
> they email address spoofed just to fill up their email inbox.
> As far as I am concerned it is a joke system that compounds the spam issue.
>   
But Denis, sender address verification (SAV) doesn't actually send an 
email to the recipient--it aborts the SMTP transaction before really 
sending a message. Nothing ends up in the recipient's mailbox, or in the 
recipient's mail server's queue.

Here is an explanation from Wikipedia:

    A mail server can try to verify the an address by making an SMTP
    connection back to the mail exchanger for it (found via the usual MX
    records <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MX_record>), pretending to be
    creating a bounce, but stopping just before any e-mail is sent. The
    commands sent out are:

        HELO <local host name>
        MAIL FROM:<>
        RCPT TO:<the address to be tested>
        QUIT
      

    This technique is technically compliant with the relevant SMTP RFCs
    (RFC 2821 <http://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc2821>).

Given this information, have you changed your opinion on SAV?

Cheers,
Chris