The tech support staff at PCS has been receiving a few e-mails from our customers not relating to spam per se, but to emails labeled as “UNKOWN RECIPIENT” and “DELIVERY FAILURE” flooding their inboxes. When the customer looks closer, they see that the e-mail appears to have originated from their e-mail account, touting the wonders of Cialis or informing the public on how to obtain a slimmer, younger you.

The first thing that comes to our customer’s minds is that they have somehow been infected with spyware or a virus that is sending out e-mails from their accounts. Even though this is a legitimate concern and we always recommend doing full anti-virus scans regularly, what is actually happening is outside of your immediate control.

Spammers have taken on the practice of using legitimate e-mail addresses to send spam from foreign mail servers, which increases the likelihood that the spam will be able to penetrate anti-spam measures. When the spam is sent and it fails to be delivered to the recipient, an e-mail server will return the e-mail to who it thinks sent the e-mail. If the mail server sees that your address is the address that sent the e-mail, then you receive the bounce-back.

Instances like this one usually happen in spurts with only a few customers, and the amount of returned e-mails diminishes after a day. To keep these bounce-backs from cluttering your inbox, PCS recommends either creating a filter in your e-mail program that either automatically deletes these messages or moves them to a designated folder. This is by no means a fix in preventing spamming events like these from occurring, but until a solution to this type of spamming is developed, it is the best way to keep your inbox clean.