Bounce Spam in Hotmail

[kars85]

i'm trying out spam inspector as my spam filter program in outlook 2k3, and in order to bounce spam back, it needs the smtp of my hotmail account.

i sent a bogus email to someone and got a reply from postmaster@mail.hotmail.com and i figured that would be my bounce back address. WRONG.

can anyone help me out? thanks

[Yochanan]

There is no SMTP server for Hotmail, as it does not allow POP3 access directly. You'd have to use a 3rd party program like Hotmail Popper to allow Outlook to check your Hotmail. Then you would use your ISP's SMTP server (i.e., smtp.comcast.net). Outlook Express, however, does not need a 3rd party POP3 program to check Hotmail. Set up your Hotmail account in OE, and give Spam Inspector your ISP's SMTP server, that should work fine.

[kars85]

thanks for the response...

if i used a different SMTP (like my ISP's) other than what the spammer sent to, wouldn't they be able to put 2 and 2 together and realize that he did in fact hit a valid email?

[Yochanan]

He didn't send it to your SMTP server, SMTP is outgoing. POP3 is incoming. Your program needs your SMTP server so it knows how to send the bounce back. No, the spammer won't know it's valid, that's the whole point behind bouncing it back. The spammer sends out the email, Spam Inspector receives it, and uses your SMTP server to send the outgoing reply telling the spammer's mail server the address is not valid and could not be delivered. I don't know anything about Spam Inspector itself, you may want to read the Help file, FAQ's, and the documentation on the website and see if they describe it better.