Email auto-responders and Spam

[Kenazo]

So at work I was given the task of figuring out how to send out auto-response emails to ppl that write to staff while they are on vacation. I figured out how to use our old Visnetic Mail Server to do this, but the question was raised regarding all the auto-responses that are going to be sent out in response to Spam that we're getting. Does this matter? Is there any way to keep the server from autoresponding to spam?

 

[Kenazo]

anyone?

 

[WobbleWobble]

I put on an autoresponder for about 8 months and for most pieces of spam that I received, the reply to address wasn't valid so the response email was never sent.

 

[Kenazo]

Good point. What exactly is the concern regarding replying to spam anyway? If I would actually reply to the spam will I end up confirming my email address with them? That seems to be the concern of our seniors.

 

[Kenazo]

No further input?

 

[LoverBoyJ]

I would like to learn too, everytime I go on vacations I always have to turn on autorespond due to customer support. Sometimes I see some spam returned with "Unkown address" but others doesn't seem to come back. Does that mean I'm confirming my email to them?

 

[ITJunkie]

Originally posted by: LoverBoyJ
I would like to learn too, everytime I go on vacations I always have to turn on autorespond due to customer support. Sometimes I see some spam returned with "Unkown address" but others doesn't seem to come back. Does that mean I'm confirming my email to them?

short answer is yes...
Whether or not the spammer records it as active for spamming purposes is up for debate.

 

[Kenazo]

Originally posted by: ITJunkie

Originally posted by: LoverBoyJ
I would like to learn too, everytime I go on vacations I always have to turn on autorespond due to customer support. Sometimes I see some spam returned with "Unkown address" but others doesn't seem to come back. Does that mean I'm confirming my email to them?

short answer is yes...
Whether or not the spammer records it as active for spamming purposes is up for debate.

Does it matter if they know it's active? We're using spambayes to filter out spam on a user level until we get around to upgrading to an email server that's capable of filtering out spam on its own, so really what's the worst that happens? We get more spam. When we're already getting 40-50 per day per user it's not really that big of a deal if we even get 10% more.