The Bounceback Backscatter Blues

At first I thought it was just me. I'd open up my e-mail inbox in the morning to find over a hundred messages telling me that people at OhMyGoshAndGoodness.com or NowWhatWasThatAllAbout.com didn't need my spam. Spam? Me? I don't think so!

So, I checked my systems to see if somehow or the other one of my systems had gotten a case of spam-spewing malware. Yes, I practice safe computing, but there's always some new trick out there and maybe this time someone had gotten one by me.

Nope. It wasn't that.

I hadn't thought it too likely since I usually use Linux desktop PCs, followed by Macs with Windows systems, the most vulnerable by orders of magnitude, back in the rear, but you never know. They checked out. I then went ahead and checked both my internal servers and my Linux-based Internet server-Practical Technology on your Web browser dial-and they were fine.

OK, this was weird, but since I had done everything up to and including checking my firewall logs, I put it down to "sometimes stuff happens." Then, it happened again, and again and…

Fortunately, before I could tear out any more of my hair. I have little enough as it is. I discovered that I was far from the only person having this problem. As Robert McMillan of IDG News reported, spammers have taken to disguising their spam with real e-mail addresses. If you, like me, have a public e-mail address, chances are you're going to find out that someone is using your e-mail address to try to force spam past spam-filters.

Isn't that special?

Adding insult to injury, bounceback backscatter, as it's called, is also really hard to deal with. There's really not much at all you can do if you're getting it. It's all coming-probably-from real mail servers trying to deal with bad messages.

The solution lies with the ISPs sending the bouncebacks in the first place. For starters, ISP can just stop sending bounceback messages when a message is sent to a user who doesn't exist. The experts also told McMillan that the problem would get better if people stopped using 'vacation' messages and 'challenge/response' anti-spam systems.

OK, the first I can see happening. The second two, no, I can't see people no longer using vacation settings and challenge/response systems. They're too darn useful for the people who use them.

So, the way I see it, I'm just going to have to live with occasional bursts of bounceback backscatter. I'm also tinkering with my SpamAssassin mail filters to see if I can find a way to zap these messages while at the same time letting me know when another outburst is hitting my mail box. After all, while I don't want to see the bounceback messages, it's always possible that one of my boxes really has been compromised and is spreading spam. If that were to happen, any tool I can use to alert me that someone has gone amiss will be welcome.