Re: [exim] Out of Office and collateral spam

On Mon, 2008-01-07 at 12:30 +0000, Ian Eiloart wrote:
> I've seen several instances over the past few years where I've had to
> disable user accounts here because of backscatter. This isn't simply a
> theoretical problem.

Just to add to this (before ducking back down below the top of this
handy trench); in both this job and my last I have seen many instances
of "battling" OoO autoresponders.

By this I mean a combination of poorly written or badly managed ones
which either ignore inbound headers, don't keep an "I replied to this
address already" database, or send out replies with no Precedence: or
other headers which make them look like autoreplies.

Seeing two systems tell each other that their users are on vacation,
continuously, at a rate of several tens of thousands of messages per day
is funny for about a picosecond.

Speaking from a purely personal perspective: I can't stand OoO and
never, ever use it. That's in part though because I subscribe to too
many mailing lists and don't want the embarrassment of a misplaced
reply!

Graeme