In anti spam circles, we’re happy that backscatter is now on the mainstream agenda, having made the USA Today Money section. We are, however, more than disappointed that it has been labelled a “latest fad” and that Jon Swartz goes on to incorrectly imply that users receiving backscatter must have been infected with a spamware virus at some point in the past.
The truth is that anybody can receive backscatter because spambots often forge the senders address in messages they send. If a spambot on your computer sent a message to an address (which does not exist) and forged my address as the sender, I will receive the bounceback. Naturally, I would also be scratching my head as I struggle to recall sending a message to somebody I don’t know offering to sell them an authentic Rolex watch I don’t have. And at a mere $200!
Our spam filter service and other spam blocker services of any merit are already stopping backscatter reaching end user mailboxes. If you are experiencing problems managing your anti spam solution, or if it is not sufficiently filtering backscatter, consider a free 14 day trial of our service.
Al Iverson and Terry Zink have been writing about backscatter for years. See the Al Iverson article for an excellent definition of backscatter.
