Author: Daniel Pope Date: To: Hampshire LUG Discussion List Subject: Re: [Hampshire] SPAM issues
Vic wrote: >> The bounces will only end up going to
>> people that didn't send the SPAM, as From: headers are always faked,
>> often with real email addresses.
Strictly, bounces go to Return-Path:, not From:, though that's just as easily
forged.
> That's why you *never* bounce such mail; always reject it or deal with it.
If it's reliably classified as spam, of course. But otherwise, if you haven't
been able to reject it at SMTP-time, the only RFC-compliant approach to "dealing
with it" involves bouncing it in some situations:
"If an SMTP server has accepted the task of relaying the mail and later finds
that the destination is incorrect or that the mail cannot be delivered for some
other reason, then it MUST construct an "undeliverable mail" notification
message and send it to the originator of the undeliverable mail (as indicated by
the reverse-path)." (RFC 5321, via Wikipedia)
It's vastly preferable to reject it, but it's not always possible.
