Help With Spam - "rumplestilskin?"

[jacksdad]

Spam assassin is working great, and is filtering out a lot of junk. Unfortunately, I am starting to get more and more spam sent to bogus addresses at my domain, i.e. moytet@mydomain, gagne@mydomain, etc. (50 to 100 per day!). I saw another post that called this technique "Rumplestilskin".

 

I would like to set my default to fail everything, except the specific addresses I pick. However, I have had my domain for several years, and have used different email addresses for different purposes, some of which I can't remember... I don't want to risk bouncing legit people.

 

Is there a way to set the fail command (or a similar command) to bounce back email, but include a message "This email address is invalid or no longer in use. Please use our website contact form or call us to get our current email address."

 

Thanks in advance.

[TCH-Don]

When you use :fail:

 

the senders e-mail server will return a bounce message

not your server.

 

I am in the same boat, about to use :fail: myself

and have used so many alias addys, but I need to do it to stop the new spam and virus e-mail.

[Head Guru]

I have moved my personal domains to :fail:

 

Spammers are out of control.

[TCH-Bruce]

I've moved all my domains to :fail: personal and company.

[Sully]

 

Perhaps a stupid question, but how does one set up the "fail" process/default?

[TCH-Thomas]

In your cpanel, please do this:

 

1) Click on "Default Address" in the email section.

 

2) Scroll down to "Set default adress" and click it.

 

3) Enter :fail: in the empty text box after your domain. Note the 2 colons, they are important.

 

4) Click change.

[Sully]

Thank you!

[TCH-Thomas]

Just glad I could help.

[carbonize]

Looks to me like it's set to :fail: by default anyway. If you are using POP for your email I can recommend Spamihilator as it is an excellent spam filter that sits on your machine.

[jacksdad]

I think several people are in the same boat as me, having used various email addresses (now forgotten) over the years and not wanting to now block them...

 

I would lke to make sure that email addresses I specify get through, i.e. legit@mydomail, legit2@mydomain, etc.

 

I'm not sure whether to then :fail: everything else, or subject everything else to a very aggressive SpamAssassin number (i.e. 2).

 

Anyway, Jim wrote a good post on preventing spam that explained the :fail: command for the default address. He said you could still have your "reserve" address get through, and forward other legit addresses to it.

 

"2. Have a reserved email address you never use to sign up for things or give to websites. I may have Jim@MyTCHDomain.com".

 

I hope this isn't a dumb question, but HOW do I set up a "reserve" email address? Do I set up an account for it? And do I then have to check it separately with Outlook / POP3 ?

 

I take it if I only have my default address and set that to :fail:and don't set up a reserve or forwards, I won't get anything.

 

I don't want to forward to a different domain, I just want legit@mydomain to go through as usual.

 

I am thinking I need to set up an email account in cPanel, but would appreciate a clarification if my question above makes sense!

 

Thanks in advance.

[TCH-Bruce]

A "reserve" email address is just like any other address and an account must be created for it to collect mail.

 

Yes, you will have to check the account.

 

Then create a forward for you legit@ to go to this account you create. The forward address does not need to be set up as an account and shouldn't.

[TCH-Don]

I am going through my e-mail looking for all the catchall addys I use

and will create forwards for them.

 

All the new virus e-mails I am getting now

from me to me

are motavating me at last

[jacksdad]

Thanks for the advice so far. I had never set up any email accts, just used the default one since everything gets through... Never really thought about it.

 

Anyway, I have set up a "reserve" address and am in the process of setting up forwards to it for all my legitimate addresses... if I can remember them. I will copy Don and go through old emails, though many have been discarded.

 

Is there a way to have spam assassin scan only the unforwarded emails (not my reserve address and the forwards, and then set it VERY aggressive?

 

I haven't decided whether to try the above with spam assassin, or simply :fail: all the other emails.

 

My fear is that I have forgotten a special email address I set up, or someone misspells my email address (i.e. rob@ instead of bob@ and then it fails, but I guess it would bounce back and they would double check the email address and realize their mistake...?).