this is not directly spamassassin related but more of a general dealing with spam issue what is the best way to deal with spam during the smtp transaction there are domains and addresses that i know are spam at the mail from and can deal with at the smtp level i have been and i think most people respond with a NUMBER NUMBER NUMBER code a permanent error that pretty much means don t bother to try from that address again you ll get the same error people often add cathartic messages to accompany the NUMBER like spammers must die but this might not be the best way to go you are telling the spammers that you are on to them this may cause them to try other methods to get around your blocks is it perhaps better to blackhole the mail that is act like everything is ok during the smtp transaction but then just drop the mail into the bitbucket this is generally how spamassassin works since almost everyone uses it after the smtp transaction has completed successfully spammer thinks everything is going fine and has no reason to try new methods then there is a third possibility instead of returning a NUMBER code indicating you re on to the spammer fake a NUMBER NUMBER NUMBER response which is saying mailbox does not exist this would be in the hopes that some spammers out there actually remove names reported as non existent from their lists i know a slim hope but even if only a few do it can lower the incidence so what are the arguments for each do spammers even look at _any_ of the bounce messages they get the volume of bounces must be huge personally i m starting to think blackholes are the way to go but sending back that spammer die die die or stock access dee nied my ephasis added message can be pretty satisfying crist j clark cjclark URL cjclark URL URL cjc URL in remembrance URL _______________________________________________ spamassassin talk mailing list spamassassin talk URL URL 