Re: [exim] How to not reply to bad mail

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Author: exim users
Date:  
To: Rick Duval
CC: exim users
Subject: Re: [exim] How to not reply to bad mail
On Thu, 2008-11-20 at 17:24 -0500, Rick Duval wrote:
> I now have a lookup that accepts emails only for addresses that are in
> the database.
>
> accept   condition = ${lookup mysql{SELECT count(*) from addresses \
>                       WHERE active AND domain='${quote_mysql:$domain}'  \
>                       AND local_part='${quote_mysql:$local_part}'}}

>
> deny
>
> It works great but I don't want to contribute to backscatter by
> sending denial messages back to the sender everytime an address is
> rejected. Right now it sends out and email like:
>
> SMTP error from remote mail server after RCPT TO:<bob@???>:
>     host duvals.ca [74.51.38.171]: 550 5.1.1 <bob@???>:
>     Recipient address rejected: User unknown in virtual alias table

>
> Can I turn that off and just not have it reply at all?


well, you can blackhole the message, but your current method is the
recommended way of setting it up. if someone mistypes an address, say
"bpb@???", you will typically want him to know about it so that he
can resend it using the correct address.

you won't be contributing to backscatter unless someone forwards e-mail
to you -- and typoes in forwarding targets should definitely be
reported.

it's a bit different if your denial is due to a SpamAssassin score or
something like that -- then the forwarding system may have more lax spam
filtering than your system, but it's the forwarding's system which will
be spreading backscatter. even here, it's not really your fault.

-- 
regards,          | Redpill  _
Kjetil T. Homme   | Linpro  (_)