Where do e-mails go to die?

tim — Mon, 06 Nov 2006 21:55:40 +0000

Ever since I got this domain (and all my other domains), I receive these bounced e-mails on a fairly regular basis. Usually they are spam that are sent “from” some weird, non-existent e-mail address at mentele.net. Well, each time a spam mail gets sent “from” someone at mentele.net “to” another user that doesn’t really exist at some other domain, that e-mail gets bounced BACK to my non-existent e-mail address which in turn gets bounced BACK to the server which sent the first bounce. Here’s a little list to explain what i’m talking about (hopefully) a little clearer.

Joe Spammer spoofs SPAM e-mail “From” some random e-mail address at mentele.net to jack@some-random-address.com (i don’t know if that really exists, but lets assume it doesnt).
The e-mail server at some-random-address.com receives the e-mail “From” me.

Since the mailbox for jack doesn’t exist, the server is most likely set up to bounce the e-mail back to me so I know that “jack” doesn’t exist

The e-mail server at mentele.net receives the e-mail “To” the random address at mentele.net (which, let’s assume doesn’t exist).

Mentele.net is set up to bounce unknown e-mails back and state “User doesn’t exist”

So, because this spammer sends this one e-mail, it gets bounced two more times AFTER the spammer originally sent it! Now, multiply that by 500 or so (that is the approximate number of those e-mails that I receive on a daily basis) and we begin to see why SPAM is such a problem. Okay, my 500 is a bad example, but mentele.net is a low-profile system — imagine something like usgs.gov or digg.com or some other LARGE domain with more than 5 users!

SPAM is only becoming a larger problem. We really need some successful legislation against spammers. Hell, we just need to confiscate their servers and computer systems…and give them to me! hehe…well, I’d be happy if we could just do the first part.

———— Update 11/07/06 ————

Odd, the day after I post this, there’s a front page article on Digg titled The Spammers Fight Back talking about a very similar topic (the increased SPAM lately). Here’s the link directly to the Eweek article.

Support DMCA Reform – Help Pass HR 1201

tim-digg — Mon, 20 Mar 2006 20:19:09 +0000

Congress is now considering the Digital Media Consumers’ Rights Act (DMCRA, HR 1201), a bill that would amend the Digital Millennium Copyright Act to allow circumvention of copy protection for non-copyright-infringing uses. This would finally allow us to legally backup our DVDs and DRM’d music. Follow the link and contact your local representative!

Tim Menteles Website » Political

Where do e-mails go to die?

Support DMCA Reform – Help Pass HR 1201