Domain Spam...

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askelon

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#34039 16-May-2009 16:03

Man Im sick of it. Seems to be going crazy the last few weeks! Just got a couple of thousand bounce backs for yet another non-existant email address (my main acc is a catchall).. Easy enough to filter out but a pain. Had the same happen on my other domain twice in the last few weeks.

Anyone else getting tons lately?

LennonNZ

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#215269 16-May-2009 17:01

It happens all the time. I have a large number of catchall domain mailboxes and maybe 1-2 times a year per domain someone starts to send spam from random email addresses of the domain. (And I get all the bouncebacks)

Suggestions..... Don't set up a catch all.. what reason do you have for this?

Depending on who/what is running your MX.
Set up SPF Records if possible for your domain. Not many people check for it at the moment but it will help http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sender_Policy_Framework
Set up DomainKeys /DKIMif possible (less people check for this but it can help) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DomainKeys_Identified_Mail
Set up BATV if possible...http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bounce_Address_Tag_Validation

askelon

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#215275 16-May-2009 18:18

Yeah its not a big problem, just a pain in the butt. I know how to fix it, just havent ever gotten around to it - my servers a little funny in that regards.. One of those things that gets put on the to-do list then of course the messages stop so I forget :D.. Thx for the good info though..

mjb

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#215302 16-May-2009 22:04

Domain catch alls are a silly idea. They've gained popularity in business because non-technical people are fearful that they'll miss important mail if the sender misspells their address, whereas in actual fact it just reinforces to the sender that the wrong address *does* work, and they'll keep using it.

Believe it or not, 99% of email users actually understand that if they get a bounce for something they sent, they should check the address they used, and if they're still stuck, they should then contact their administrators.

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nate

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#215310 17-May-2009 02:11

askelon: Man Im sick of it. Seems to be going crazy the last few weeks! Just got a couple of thousand bounce backs for yet another non-existant email address (my main acc is a catchall).. Easy enough to filter out but a pain. Had the same happen on my other domain twice in the last few weeks.

I have a catch-all on our domains mainly because I've forgotten some of the addresses we get mail to, and this way I'm guaranteed I won't miss out on business. I should go through and sort this out (Google spam filters FTW).

I've noticed a lot more spam coming through our .com vs our .com.au or .co.nz. Seems like the "someone died, help me transfer $$millions and I'll pay you" is very popular at the moment.

tonyhughes

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#215327 17-May-2009 09:59

Havent had catch-alls for years, I have aliases of potential easy misspellings.

Catchall is such a bad idea for so many reasons.

askelon

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#215350 17-May-2009 13:17

I had mine all running thru a catchall account stored at an isps email address. Was working ok for what I wanted (I have a few people using email accounts on my server).. Just switched the mx records to point at my server and am going to give that a blast for a week or so and see how it goes. So far Ive definately got a little spam from it all, will tweak my spam settings one day ;).

amanzi

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#215608 18-May-2009 14:44

mjb: Domain catch alls are a silly idea. They've gained popularity in business because non-technical people are fearful that they'll miss important mail if the sender misspells their address, whereas in actual fact it just reinforces to the sender that the wrong address *does* work, and they'll keep using it.

Believe it or not, 99% of email users actually understand that if they get a bounce for something they sent, they should check the address they used, and if they're still stuck, they should then contact their administrators.

I'd rather use a catch-all address than send back failure notifications for non-existent addresses. Bounce back emails are just adding to the spam problems.

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mjb

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#215610 18-May-2009 14:52

amanzi: I'd rather use a catch-all address than send back failure notifications for non-existent addresses. Bounce back emails are just adding to the spam problems.

True.. but I'd rather not have to process the spam at all. :) Greylisting is a good middle ground, but will knock out legitimate mail from some larger US ISPs.. so it needs tuning to not defer some remote sites.

A combination of smtp-time filtering, greylisting, SPF and domainkeys (although that's in its infancy) is the best way to handle it.

As for NDRs, I get frustrated with someone I know who uses mailwasher and insists on using its bounce feature for any spam he gets..

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