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Re: [Asrg] Spammers looking for sites that don't bounce?

2003-06-25 20:41:38
I can confirm this. They are using 10+ random names for email at the known 
isp domains with more then one name like that used. Very similar attempts 
happen from both blackholed ip blocks and from other ip blocks. I'v so far 
found two of these correlations in the logs and its not easy to notice it.

This is yet another technique spammers use to prepare for mass mailing 
when they have multiple servers and want maximum effectiveness.

On Wed, 25 Jun 2003, Kee Hinckley wrote:

On another mailing list (still waiting for permission to quote), 
someone running  an ISP made the following claim.

He says that if he sets up his mail server to blackhole spam instead 
of bounce it, the spammer shortly shifts to a different IP address 
with slightly different text.  He claims they are seeding the spam 
with known bad addresses, and if they don't get back a failed status 
from the SMTP server, they know that their spam is getting trapped by 
filters.

I don't have any idea what methodology he's using, and without a good 
control group to compare with this could be just a case of seeing 
lots of spam.  However conceptually it makes sense.  It's the inverse 
of checking for bounces on valid addresses, and it would allow a 
spammer to fine-tune their message to get through filters.

Can anyone confirm this?




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