Bouncing Emails...Good idea?

Summerbear5 · 21 Apr 2014

I've had the same email address for years and would like to keep it. It's a Yahoo email. I accidentally signed up for something a long time ago which is a 'no no'. I have 2 emails and usually have one for regular and one for spam but I messed up and now have spam coming to my regular email.
With Yahoo everything has been going into the spam folder just fine with the occasional one that ends up in the inbox, But I hate having spam constantly coming to that email because if I get an important email message that accidentally goes into spam I have to search and find it threw the 60+ spam emails I get daily.
I recently downloaded MailWasher and got the pro version on a free trial and I have been using the bounce back feature hoping that if I bounce back enough spam emails they will remove me from the list assuming my email address has been deleted. So far I've had it not even a week but I wanted to ask is using the bounce back feature a good idea? Does it really work? Or is there anything else I can do to remove my email from spam lists or make the spammers believe my email address has been deleted even though it hasn't.

I would really really really want to keep this email address so please don't reply with "delete your email and create a new one" because I really don't want to have to do that. I'll live with having spam than deleting the email address.

richc46 · 21 Apr 2014

No, it is not a good idea.
The return address is usually that of an innocent person. You may be sending back mail to someone that considers it spam.

Summerbear5 · 22 Apr 2014

Well anything else I can do?

richc46 · 22 Apr 2014

There is only one thing, but you said you do not want to do it. I have what I call a spam account. When I give my address online, I only use that address. All the spam mail goes there.

Summerbear5 · 22 Apr 2014

Ya I have a spam account too but one day I made a mistake. Oh well I guess I'll just live with it then because ya I don't want to delete my address and start over.

LMiller7 · 22 Apr 2014

Bouncing email back does not work with SPAM. Spammers go to great lengths to ensure their identity is not known and the bounce notification would never reach them. Some messages may have an option that will supposedly remove your email address from the SPAM list. Do not do this as it only confirms that your email address is in active use and thus a prime target for more SPAM.

It is impossible to have an email address removed from SPAM lists. Spammers frequently work with millions of email addresses and have neither the time nor interest in removing addresses that may no longer be in use. Spammers know that the large majority of people do no wish to receive their messages. They don't care. As long as SPAM works they will continue to send it.

The best policy is to prevent your email address from entering SPAM lists. Once there it is too late.

Slartybart · 22 Apr 2014

The concensus is: No do not bounce mail back

If it does end up in the spammer's inbox, it only confirms that they have an active eMail address.
I'll amplify LMiller's comment on unsubscribe links in spam NEVER click those. It is another way spammers confirm active eMail addresses. Or worse, it takes you somewhere that you'd rather not be.

First, check all of the Yahoo spam features and fine tune them.

You can block addresses - if you don't know any people in foreign lands, block the domain for than country (*.it, *.fr , *.uk, *.de, *.ca ...).

You can set up filters in Yahoo, that key off of header fields (sender, recipient, subject). Sender and Recipient filters won't help much - spammers change the sending address and you are always the recipient.

It's tricky, but look through the spam folder (sort by subject) and find something you can use to key a filter (Pharmacy, Viagra, Enlarge, Rolex, Sex, etc). Build the filter to move these msgs to a new folder (FilteredMail).
Of course if you get Viagra from your Pharmacy, or want a Sexy Rolex, this will not work :)

You'll have to play around with the filters to get the best results. The spam folder will have fewer msgs in it, but you have a new folder to check for real mail (your uncle works at a Pharmacy and sent you a birthday card). I think that with a little bit of work, you'll find a good balance.

Yahoo free mail limits filters to 50 I think. Spammers often use the same subject lines - I get Rolex offers from 20 "people", so one filter solves the "Want a Rolex knock-off watch"

Good luck
.