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| | Ask HN: A spammer is spoofing my email address; what do I do? | |
143 points by jb1991 on Mar 31, 2016 | hide | past | favorite | 50 comments |
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| About every 15 seconds all day, another Mail Delivery Subsystem Status Notification Failure pops in from random servers around the world for some email that supposedly I sent, but of course did not. Apparently someone is sending out thousands of emails as coming from my address, and there is nothing I can do about it, right? Here are my questions: 1) Or, is there something I can do about this?
2) Will this cause my email address to end up on blacklists and cause me significant problems?
3) Why in 2016 are Internet mechanisms not in place to prevent stuff like this? |
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Steps to mitigate.
1. Setup SPF immediately. You can validate your records here- http://www.kitterman.com/spf/validate.html
You'll have to know who you send email through and their SPF record, but a quick googling of "provider name SPF" should get you what you need.
Depending on your DNS provider the results may be instant.
2. Filter those bounces keep them out of your inbox - it's going to take while until this clears up.
3. Make sure that YOU are not hacked, check the headers of the bounce back messages here - http://mxtoolbox.com/EmailHeaders.aspx
Ensure that your IP or hostname is not listed there. (This includes web servers that your domain is hosted on, apps that send on your behalf etc)
4. You can check to see if your domain is black listed - http://mxtoolbox.com/blacklists.aspx probably not...but worth a check.
TL;DR - I run one of the largest spam filtering companies in the world. Happens all day to clients...it's one of the reasons people switch to us.