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Hi,

I am having a spam problem with my domain account, hosted at Google.
Actually I am not directly getting any spam but in a following way (not
sure but I think so):

1) Some spammer is sending spam emails using

2) Huge portion of total spam sent bounced back to the same
(due to unavailable recepient, delivery
failures, auto responses, etc)
3) Now, since I have set my email address as the "Catch all" email
address in the settings, I am receiving all those emails that have
bounced back to .

Few days back, I received over 2000 emails of same type. Can anyone
please suggest me how I can prevent this problem. And does my domain
name get black-listed in email servers because someone else is sending
emails from my account?

Please help,
Pradeep.

I'm actually kinda having the same problem as 'pradeep'. I was looking
in my spam box and noticed that everything was a "reply" to some email
that appears to have come from my addy, only "my" original message is
gibberish. But I also did notice that everything in my sent box is
everything that I HAVE sent. So is someone actually hacked into my
account or is it someone that has my email??

thanks,
lexlieuthor

<> wrote in message
news: ups.com...
> I'm actually kinda having the same problem as 'pradeep'. I was looking
> in my spam box and noticed that everything was a "reply" to some email
> that appears to have come from my addy, only "my" original message is
> gibberish. But I also did notice that everything in my sent box is
> everything that I HAVE sent. So is someone actually hacked into my
> account or is it someone that has my email??
>
> thanks,
> lexlieuthor
>

Unfortunately there is not much you can do about it. It is a tactic of the
spammers to try and overcome spam filters and to avoid being tracked down.
Once a spammer gets hold of your address, it gets passed around and abused
by other spammers.

Best thing to do is not use a catchall address. Just use addresses you
need. A lot of ISP's and hosts are withdrawing the catchall facility
because of the problem.

The gibberish emails are usually images recommending to buy low price
shares, the scam is called "pump & dump". The scammers buy a load of low
priced shares then send a flood of emails advising that the company is "hot"
and the share price is about to explode. Gullible people buy them, the
price rises, the spammer sells & makes a profit, the price crashes and all
the gullible people lose money.

It is big money for the scammers and it is believed that the scams are run
by organised gangs and possibly terrorists who are difficult to track down.

The spam emails are sent from third party email servers that haven't been
properly secured and allows the scammers to "relay" off them or PC's that
have been compromised by a virus/Trojan which allows them to run a botnet (a
network of compromised machines controlled by hackers) .

wrote:

> 3) Now, since I have set my email address as the "Catch all" email
> address in the settings, I am receiving all those emails that have
> bounced back to .

If you use a cPanel web host for your email, set the catchall to

:blackhole:

...and turn on SpamAssassin or whatever spam trap is available.

--
-bts
-Motorcycles defy gravity; cars just suck

On 2006-11-14, <> wrote:
> Hi,
>
> I am having a spam problem with my domain account, hosted at Google.
> Actually I am not directly getting any spam but in a following way (not
> sure but I think so):
>
> 1) Some spammer is sending spam emails using
>

Common problem.

> 2) Huge portion of total spam sent bounced back to the same
> (due to unavailable recepient, delivery
> failures, auto responses, etc)

Those bounces are themselves a form of 'abuse'; the mail-servers that send
them should be set to just drop undeliverable email. You could try
suggesting that to the respective admins, if you have a lot of spare time
and energy.

> 3) Now, since I have set my email address as the "Catch all" email
> address in the settings, I am receiving all those emails that have
> bounced back to .
>
> Few days back, I received over 2000 emails of same type. Can anyone
> please suggest me how I can prevent this problem.

Only 'collect' emails sent specifically to addresses that you use; delete
all the rest automatically.

> And does my domain
> name get black-listed in email servers because someone else is sending
> emails from my account?

Only people who don't know what's really going on will blacklist your
domain on the basis of the From address in spam. If your own email server
is being used to send spam, then that is a different matter.

> Please help,
> Pradeep.

Consider the advice you'll get in this thread, and try not to worry )

--
-- ^^^^^^^^^^
-- Whiskers
-- ~~~~~~~~~~

wrote:

> 1) Some spammer is sending spam emails using
>
> 2) Huge portion of total spam sent bounced back to the same
> (due to unavailable recepient, delivery
> failures, auto responses, etc)
> 3) Now, since I have set my email address as the "Catch all" email
> address in the settings, I am receiving all those emails that have
> bounced back to .

> Few days back, I received over 2000 emails of same type. Can anyone
> please suggest me how I can prevent this problem.

Don't configure handling everything which is emailed to non-existent
addresses at your domainname.

> And does my domain
> name get black-listed in email servers because someone else is sending
> emails from my account?

No -- only clueless newbies click 'block this sender' as an enduser
antispam strategy.

No blocklist does anything with From.

The misdirected bounces you receive are abusive and spamcop reportable.
If you are a free registration spamcop reporter, you can spamcop report
the misdirected bounces themselves, not the spam which caused the
bounce.

The advantage of reporting them is that the servers shouldn't be
configured that way, and those servers don't like getting spamcop
blocklisted because it interferes with their own mail's delivery, and
your reports can aid in pressuring them to reconfigure themselves to
handle their spam differently.


--
Mike Easter