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How to stop spammers from using your email?

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  • 25-08-2008 12:23pm
    #1
    Wcool
    Registered Users Posts: 640 ✭✭✭


    Can anything be done to stop spammers from using your email in the reply-to address?

    My setup: I have my own domain name, and it has a mail redirect to my google email. This means that any mail for the domain in the end is forwarded to gmail.
    I send from gmail but set my reply address to an address ending in my domain name.

    Some spammer uses my email within my domain in the reply-to field. Of course I can't stop this, but the problem is that many people that are mailed don't exist or have an automated reply of some sort. This means I get 400 bounced emails.

    Is there really no way I can add some sort of authenticity to my emails? I tried SPF but I don't think it works, or maybe I didn't set it up right.

    Any suggestions appreciated.


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    #2
    JohnnieM
    Closed Accounts Posts: 716 ✭✭✭JohnnieM


    What about using google apps (insted of just forwarding to your g mail) That with spf should sort you out ..
    www.google.com/a


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    #3
    Wcool
    Registered Users Posts: 640 ✭✭✭Wcool


    Sorry Johnnie, I don't understand how Google Apps can work? Could you explain?

    Is there anyone out there that successfully used SPF to reduce spam? I have the impression it doesn't work, not even a bit?

    Could I add some signature to the emails that I send and if i get a bounced email from a fake email account using my domain name, it is automatically flagged as junk? (as it doesn't have my signature?)


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    #4
    FruitLover
    Registered Users Posts: 2,534 ✭✭✭FruitLover


    SPF relies on the receiving server checking the SPF record. As a lot of people/companies don't set up their mail server to check SPF records, it often doesn't help much.


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    #5
    johnmd
    Registered Users Posts: 55 ✭✭johnmd


    Its really depends on your situation,if you have your own company mail server then the following steps would be a good start.

    1.Add in an SPF (Sender Policy Framework) http://www.openspf.org record to your DNS xone file for your domain.
    2.Implement Greylisting at either the gateway level or directly on your mail server if it supports it. http://www.greylisting.org
    3.Implement a spam filtering that will tag emails with an invalid sender,some MTAs eg exim will do this out of the box.
    4.Implement rate limiting on the MTA if it supports it (Most do).

    That should stop most of your spam issues.

    Some other wonderful nasties,this will also help you deal with.
    1.Bounce backs with false sender addresses.
    2.Dictionary harvest attacks


    Regards

    John Doyle


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