have you ever seen messages from the mail delivery subsystem, or “mailer-daemon”, in your inbox? If so, chances are you’ve seen a lot of them, anywhere from dozens to even hundreds! So what are these messages, why are you getting them, and is there anything to worry about?
So, the “mailer-daemon” (pronounced “male-er day-mun”) is another name for the response system on an email server. not a person, just a computer. when a mail server receives a message, the server checks the address to see if it exists on that server. if the address exists there, it will send the message to that person’s mailbox on the server. however, if the address does not exist on that server, the message cannot be delivered and must be returned to the sender. that reply message will be from “mailer-daemon”.
“Okay, I understand, but why am I receiving them?”
Let’s focus on how spammers operate. spam systems collect all the addresses they can from the emails they scan, the data they mine or buy, and the emails they receive through the websites they control, so they have hundreds or thousands of email addresses in a database. those are the addresses they will send your spam emails to. The problem is that many of those addresses may be old, misspelled, or completely made up by the user, so the spam system is unknowingly sending many of its spam messages to email addresses that they are not valid. each of those invalid addresses will generate a “mailer-daemon” message to the spam sender.
“that makes sense, but why are you coming to me instead of going back to the spammer?”
Spam systems use another trick when they send their spam emails. they never use your “real” address when sending their spam. they randomly choose one of the addresses in the list of addresses they have collected and use one of them for each spam burst. that way, any bounced messages go back to that person instead of her! As it happened, your address (which should be on their list) was used as the “from” for that round of spam. that’s why all bounced messages were sent to you.
“so what do I do about it?”
Receiving these “mailer-daemon” messages means that the spam has already been sent. servers vary in the amount of time they continue to try to deliver the message before returning it to the sender, so you can receive these “mailer-daemon” messages for up to four days before they stop. these messages are not dangerous, you can just delete them.
“And that’s all??”
hopefully yes. If mailer-daemon messages don’t subside after four days, continue to come in, or even get worse, that means something is likely perpetuating this cycle. Basically, we would suspect that your computer has an infection or that your email password has been compromised because something continues to use your email to send spam.
so at that point, you’ll want to run your antivirus program on any device (laptop, desktop, android device) that uses that email address to remove any infections, malware, viruses, etc. once this is done call tcc and we will change your email password so that any spam systems that have your current password will no longer have access to your account. this can only be done after scanning your computer, as a malware program could simply get your new password as soon as you enter it.
then, you should be free. again, you’ll probably see those “mailer-daemon” messages for a couple more days while the servers finish delivering or rejecting the spam messages, but then it should be gone forever.
“Now my email won’t send! I’m getting a “554” error message!”
Not being able to send email and receiving a “554” error message is the result of having some kind of infection or password breach that caused your email to be used by some outside entity. If your account is actually being used to attempt to send spam, via tcc’s email server, our filtering will eventually shut you down and lock your account from sending until the situation is resolved. that lock usually results in a “554” error message.
at this point virus scan and password change is required to reopen your email as we have to contact the mail server administrator to unlock your account and they will only do so if they are reasonably sure that the server will be safe from being used for spam.
“so, is that all?”
yes, that *should* be the last of the “mailer-daemon”, spam and “554” error problems. just be careful what you click and download, messages that ask you to click a link or provide information, and have passwords on your account that can be easy for a spam system to guess.
If you have any further questions, please contact tcc at info@tccpro.net and we’ll be happy to help.