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Proving You Are Not a Spammer?

Posted by Cliff on from the smtp-from-header-validation dept.

tfinniga asks: "A spammer has recently started using my domain name as 'From:' addresses when sending out spam. I'm worried about my domain being blacklisted, and I'm annoyed by the bounces — I'm getting about 1000 bounce messages a day. Unfortunately, I give out a different email address to each site I visit: slashdot@example.com, paypal@example.com, amazon@example.com, etc., and the spammer is using a different address for each mail, so simple address filtering doesn't work. What is the best way of avoiding being put on a blacklist, and dealing with the flood of bounces?"

2 of 127 comments (clear)

  1. Joe Jobbed by bmo · · Score: 5, Informative

    You are being joe-jobbed. Do not worry about it.

    http://www.spamfaq.net/terminology.shtml#joe_job

    3.2.22 What's a "Joe Job"?
    The act of faking a spam so that it appears to be from an innocent third party, in order to damage their reputation and possibly to trick their provider into revoking their Internet access. Named after Joes.com, which was victimized in this way by a spammer some years ago.

    You will not wind up on a blacklist. This is a well known phenomenon among mail admins.

    --
    BMO

  2. Sorry you can be blacklisted by lunatick · · Score: 5, Informative

    To all the people saying domains don't get black listed. Sorry you are wrong.

    I posted this exact question to slashdot about 4 years ago, back then you were just pretty much screwed.
    I was actually recieving threating return mail for sending spam, which is why I posted here.

    My domain did end up on a bunch of black lists and is still on a few to this day.

    I will say that the better ISP's use a mailserver based black list and not a domain based one, but there are still some out there.

    Now what you can do.

    Go to the FTC ID theft complaint form

    https://rn.ftc.gov/pls/dod/widtpubl$.startup?Z_ORG _CODE=PU03

    Yes spoofing your e-mail is a form of ID theft.
    The company advertised is just as legally responsible as the spammer.

    If you keep fileing complaints the spammers learn not to use your e-mail. The ones in the US and Canada you can actually sue to recover damages.

    Good luck

    --
    The Lunatick, Carpe Corpus!