RE: [Exim] opinion on unconditional accept for postmaster

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> I know I eventually got so pissed off at having my mail to remote
> postmasters bounce when I had problems that I implemented the
> postmaster callback in exim (i.e. don't accept Email from a site as
> long as they don't at least return 2xx for RCPT TO postmaster)

I did the same about four months ago, but so many sites don't or won't
accept for postmaster or even bounce it back that I had to turn it off
again!

Worst of all, more and more sites seem to be refusing bounce messages.
Then I get the whining mails from their users (or mine) asking what
happened to their message! So far 5 postmasters have asked us for help
and advice (and two of them changed from SendMail to Exim as a result).
I don't get ANY problems from those sites now.

> It's interesting, as while I've been postmaster for big sites,
> somehow, I've never received much spam at all at those addresses (most
> spammers know better than shooting themselves in the foot)

I've been working with mail since 1992 on sites large (40k+) and small
(20+), and up until this summer I would have agreed with you 100%. The
new trend seems to be that any mail address will do. We now get around
20-30 spam messages per day in the postmaster account and about 10-15 in
the abuse account.

> Besides, blocked people then have no recourse to contact you and tell
> you the block was made in mistake (it does happen)

I had a problem today where spamcop had an IP address listed and the
only addresses of mine that they could contact were postmaster and
abuse. It turned out that the IP address of their (only) mailer was
being spoofed. Not sure what they can do about that though...

> > You know what? I REALLY dislike spammers. Sigh.
>
> See, we all agree on that ;-)

Very much so! We stop around 20-30,000 messages a day (around 8-10%)
using various RBL's, local blocks and SpamAssassin. And some still gets
through - of course!

> - refuse Email that fails SMTP callbacks, even to postmaster
> The SMTP callback rejection should include the reason why the mail is
> being rejected (i.e. unbounceable Email)

I'd love to - but I've been told I can't !

> - accept mail to postmaster and send an autoresponder message giving your
> guidelines and explaining how to contact you for each kind of problem.

Hadn't thought of that! Nice idea - thanks !

Tony Sheen
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