email notification of failed mail delivery

[eaglesoa]

I keep getting mail from:
From: MAILER-DAEMON@xmail.bluehost.com
(Here is a sample)

Hi. This is the qmail-send program at xmail.bluehost.com.
I'm afraid I wasn't able to deliver your message to the following addresses.
This is a permanent error; I've given up. Sorry it didn't work out.

<jennie@eic.ictnet.es>:
62.14.4.84 does not like recipient.
Remote host said: 550 Usuario desconocido. Unknown user.
Giving up on 62.14.4.84.

Is this happening to anyone else?
I don't send email from bluehost.

Thanks,
Eldron

[areidmtm]

Looks like someone is sending spam from your email address and unfortunately there is no way to prevent someone from sending an email from your address.

I can easily create a PHP script that will send an email from george@whitehouse.gov to anyone that I wanted

[felgall]

Most virus writers will insert someone else's address in the from field of all of the virus containing emails that they send out so that if the email server that the to address is on decides to bounce the email as undeliverable that they have a second chance at infecting someone's computer if the mail server for the from address lets it in. The same is true of spam where mail servers set to bounce undeliverable messages give the spammer a second chance of someone seeing their spam.

The mail servers set up to bounce undeliverable emails are responsible for a large percentage of the spam and virus emails that are around. probably almost as much of it as the people who send it out in the first place.

[gvunder]

Yes I receive these regularly. I have just deleted my "webmaster @" email account. Will this solve the problem? I had a BlueMail form on my Contact page and it emailed to my "webmaster @" email account.

What actions should I take to remedy someone using my account and then the emails getting bounced back. Would it be safer to delete the html form on the Contact page? Is there a safe way to let visitors know how to contact you without spammers abusing it?

Thanks!

[felgall]

Anyone can create theose emails from anywhere and there is nothing anyone can do to stop them. Spammers just set both the TO and FROM addresses in the email so that if the person it is addressed to bounces it then the email will be forwarded to someone else. The only way to stop it is to reconfigure all mail servers to blackhole undeliverable mail instead of bouncing it and since 99.999999% of those are not under your control you have no chance of getting that to happen.