I'd say the worst they can do is to direct the abuse report back to
themselves. This not only suppresses some fraction of their spam
complaints, but it also confirms valid email addresses and may reveal
information about what MUA is in use, which in turn can be used to
refine the next spam or exploit that they direct to that address.
A spammer might collect complaints and listwash, which would mean that
the complainant gets less spam. I hope we agree that's the goal.
If a spammer wants to confirm receipt, which very few of them do,
he uses web bugs. I suppose info about the MUA might be marginally
useful, but if I were a spammer and knew that a recipient was
sufficiently annoyed to press the spam button, I'd take them off the
list. I still have millions of other people to mail to, after all.
R's,
John
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