Can a hosting service stop someone spamming from my domain?
Can a hosting service stop someone spamming from my domain?
Author
Discussion

puggit

Original Poster:

49,832 posts

279 months

Thursday 3rd May 2007
quotequote all
I've just started receiving spam from my own domain. I assume someone is spoofing the addresses, as they aren't real.

If someone is spoofing my domain, do the emails travel through my hosting provider, and can they do anything about it? There are only 2 real email addresses in the domain!

I'm still with 1&1 for my sins!

SGirl

7,924 posts

292 months

Thursday 3rd May 2007
quotequote all
I get these quite a lot too. It's unlikely your hosting provider is the one actually forwarding the spam, so as far as I'm aware there's not a lot you can do about it.

But if anyone else knows differently, I'd be interested in hearing how to stop it too.

ThePassenger

6,962 posts

266 months

Thursday 3rd May 2007
quotequote all
No nothing you or anyone else can do about it. Nobody is using your providers hardware.
Basically, I can set my e-mail address to whatever the hell I want it to be. If it happens to be yours then tough, you'll be on the receiving end of the abuse

SneakyNeil

9,293 posts

268 months

Thursday 3rd May 2007
quotequote all
Are the spams mostly to one of the valid addresses or just to random ones? If the latter, turning off the catch-all so that incorrect addresses bounce might be a good move.

puggit

Original Poster:

49,832 posts

279 months

Thursday 3rd May 2007
quotequote all
SneakyNeil said:
Are the spams mostly to one of the valid addresses or just to random ones? If the latter, turning off the catch-all so that incorrect addresses bounce might be a good move.
They are from random addresses, but only to real addresses.

I'm not getting bounced spam

_dobbo_

14,619 posts

279 months

Thursday 3rd May 2007
quotequote all
Your hosting provider might be able to stop this but it really depends on the flexibility of their email system, and whether it's worth the time to implement the change, or whether they can implement it just for you.

It should be possible to perform a check so that only authenticated local users (eg people who have an account) are allowed to send using a local domain name.

This means if an email comes in from an un-authenticated IP address, and uses your domain as the sender, it's rejected. This will be extremely effective at stopping spam sent direct to you using your domain as the sender, but useless at stopping bounces, failed mails, or any other type of spam.

The easier solution is to find some effective anti-spam software and use that, as it should stop most of the spam regardless of sender.





puggit

Original Poster:

49,832 posts

279 months

Thursday 3rd May 2007
quotequote all
_dobbo_ said:
The easier solution is to find some effective anti-spam software and use that, as it should stop most of the spam regardless of sender.
Already using Mailwasher, so it's not a problem - I just want them to stop this spammer using my domain

_dobbo_

14,619 posts

279 months

Thursday 3rd May 2007
quotequote all
Ah ok, in that case - they can stop it coming into your account but as ThePassenger says above they can't stop this spammer from sending to other people using your address.

There do exist technologies such as SPF which would all but eradicate this, but it requires everyone to have perfectly configured DNS records and understand the technology, and precious few DNS or mail server admins do.

This means the tech can't be implemented because doing so will likely block most incoming email!