Spam attacks to discourage one from keeping a domain?

Hello,
I've got a couple of domains that I've only used for email addresses
to a small circle of friends but I get scads of spam. One domain I
haven't even used yet for email or web but it is hosted and it also
gets buckets of spam - dictionary style to a bunch of names I've never
used.

I am suspecting someone else wants the domain and is spamming the
daylights out of it in the hope of diminishing its utility and perhaps
I'll give it up.

I won't cave but I am curious how widespread this sort of thing is and
if there is a formal name for this practice.

I also wonder, if such a scheme were to succeed, wouldn't the new
domain owner also have a problem with waves of spam or would they just
let a small number of specific addresses through.

Thanks

Jay

JJ wrote:

> I am suspecting someone else wants the domain and is spamming the
> daylights out of it in the hope of diminishing its utility and perhaps
> I'll give it up.

Sorry, but I just suspect that someone is spamming as per normal.

To reduce the impact, drop any "catch all" e-mail addresses you use.

--
Toby A Inkster BSc (Hons) ARCS
Contact Me ~ http://tobyinkster.co.uk/contact

"Toby Inkster" wrote about spam:
: To reduce the impact, drop any "catch all" e-mail addresses you
use.

To add to that, avoid firstname@ addresses, e.g. john@example.com.

Other common spamming techniques are to send emails to
sales@example.com, info@example.com, and other common email names
attached to the domain names. These are other ones to avoid unless
you're prepared for the spam.

Lois

Lois wrote:
: "Toby Inkster" wrote about spam:
:: To reduce the impact, drop any "catch all" e-mail addresses you
: use.
:
: To add to that, avoid firstname@ addresses, e.g. john@example.com.

But the question comes is what if you miss something important or relatively
that would have gone to a catch all?

Also if you only have so many allotted email accounts you can set up
as individual email accounts but unlimited aliases then a catch all account
is
a necessary thing.

"Heidi" wrote:
: But the question comes is what if you miss something important or
relatively
: that would have gone to a catch all?

If you don't have a catch-all, emails sent to non-existent addresses
will bounce, and the sender will know to resend them to the correct
address. OTOH, if you do have a catch-all, there's a bigger risk
(IMO) that legit email will get lost among the spam. Also, how often
do you check a catch-all account?

Personally, I don't want to see spam even in a catch-all account.
Spammers have a chance of reaching an audience with catch-all
accounts, but they have no chance if spam is bounced.


: Also if you only have so many allotted email accounts you can set
up
: as individual email accounts but unlimited aliases then a catch all
account
: is
: a necessary thing.

A limited number of email accounts is not a good thing for some of
us. But as long as the aliases are unlimited, you can do a lot with
them.

Lois

Lois wrote:
> "Heidi" wrote:
> : But the question comes is what if you miss something important or
> relatively
> : that would have gone to a catch all?
>
> If you don't have a catch-all, emails sent to non-existent addresses
> will bounce, and the sender will know to resend them to the correct
> address. OTOH, if you do have a catch-all, there's a bigger risk
> (IMO) that legit email will get lost among the spam. Also, how often
> do you check a catch-all account?
>
> Personally, I don't want to see spam even in a catch-all account.
> Spammers have a chance of reaching an audience with catch-all
> accounts, but they have no chance if spam is bounced.
>
>
> : Also if you only have so many allotted email accounts you can set
> up
> : as individual email accounts but unlimited aliases then a catch all
> account
> : is
> : a necessary thing.
>
> A limited number of email accounts is not a good thing for some of
> us. But as long as the aliases are unlimited, you can do a lot with
> them.
>
> Lois
>
>
>

I provide a form. If someone really wants to get in contact and they've
never mailed me before, the web form is the first port of call. I use
less obvious (not our names) accounts for our business email addresses.
They're not really guessable.

--


x theSpaceGirl (miranda)

# lead designer @ http://www.dhnewmedia.com #
# remove NO SPAM to email, or use form on website #

On Thu, 13 Jan 2005 0630 GMT, JJ wrote:

> Hello,
> I've got a couple of domains that I've only used for email addresses
> to a small circle of friends but I get scads of spam. One domain I
> haven't even used yet for email or web but it is hosted and it also
> gets buckets of spam - dictionary style to a bunch of names I've never
> used.
>
> I am suspecting someone else wants the domain and is spamming the
> daylights out of it in the hope of diminishing its utility and perhaps
> I'll give it up.
>
> I won't cave but I am curious how widespread this sort of thing is and
> if there is a formal name for this practice.
>
> I also wonder, if such a scheme were to succeed, wouldn't the new
> domain owner also have a problem with waves of spam or would they just
> let a small number of specific addresses through.

This is the first time I hear about getting spam for the purpose of letting
a domain name go. If you get a lot of spam, your host is doing a bad job
about it. Your host should have different antispam measures deployed.
At my host (below) for example, the measures include spam assassin, RBLs,
content filters, static filters plus you can create your own filters
through Webmail, client and server side including using regex. You can also
use black and white lists and challenge/response. You can receive 0 spam if
you want to make as tight as possible. A white list should enable you to
get 0 spam.

Worst case, keep the domain name and site and let a formal antispam company
handle your emails to your domain name, for a price or just get a free
Hotmail or Yahoo accounts. They handle spam pretty good.



Karim
--
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