Re: Using MUAs to bounce mail (was: Please, don't reply to spam ...)
Hi,
On Sun, Jun 29, 2025 at 11:55:56AM +0200, Ralph Aichinger wrote:
> I absolutely love bouncing mails in mutt instead of forwarding. I need
> some mail on the address I use on my mobile: Just bounce it. I only do
> this to my own mail addresses.
>
> Am I alone in this use case of bounces? Or is this considered an
> abuse?
I don't see how sending email to yourself can be considered abusive.
It's rare I will use this feature any more because modern email sender
authentication measures are more likely to make the mail fail to arrive.
For example, if you receive an email that looks like this:
From: sender@example.com
To: you@example.edu
and you bounce that to you@gmail.com, it will arrive at gmail from your
current IP address and with From: address still listed as
sender@example.com. Since your current network probably isn't authorised
to send email for example.com, if example.com uses SPF this will be an
SPF failure. It will also likely be a DKIM failure due to some added and
changed headers. If both fail then this will additionally be a DMARC
failure.
In the post-SPF and DKIM world, the ways to redirect / forward emails
have changed.
I will sometimes use Mutt's bounce feature to re-send email that did not
get delivered because I did something wrong. For example, if I email a
mailing list that only allows subscribers to post to it but I use the
wrong address, my mail is either held for moderation or immediately
rejected. I then go into the sent folder, 'e'dit the item to have the
correct From: address and then 'b'ounce it to the same place it was
originally sent to. This won't be a problem because it will be using an
address I am permitted to use from the place I am sending it from. I
could instead do a forward but then I'd have to edit away the extra junk
that forwarding adds.
The number of people using email in any serious manner is dwindling and
most users do not know anything about headers or the sender
authentication mechanisms. I personally would not try to talk anyone
through trying to bounce, forward or otherwise report spam in any way at
all unless their email provider has a "report spam" button. I think
there are too many fiddly concepts involved with a diminishing return on
the investment of learning them.
The Debian list archives do have a "this is spam" button on each
message, which I think was mentioned earlier in the thread. That's worth
using just to hopefully get the message removed from the archives.
Thanks,
Andy
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