Processing bounced emails

[leetata]

I am running an ecard site. An user sends ecards in emails to his/her business contacts via my site.

The emails are to the recipients of the ecards. The most common reasons are because of the email addresses are no longer valid because people have left the companies or because of email address typo. A few bounce is because the company's system think the emails are spam.

Our site indicates when the emails have sent out and whether the ecards have been picked up. So if the many ecards have not been picked up, then the recipients know that something may be wrong. It is good service to let the customers know that their email addresses have failed. And it is to our benefit that the customers resend the ecards with the correct email addresses; it is marketing for our site.

It is not as easy as using a mailing list management software. The ecards that customers send out are actually email messages to the recipients telling them to pick up the ecards at the site (with a "ecard" url and a "pickup" url with a code). So there is no "subscription" or "mailing list" to manage.

I just want some more systematic way to process the bounced emails.

[orangemike]

Originally Posted by leetata

I am running an ecard site. An user sends ecards in emails to his/her business contacts via my site.

The ecards that customers send out are actually email messages to the recipients telling them to pick up the ecards at the site (with a "ecard" url and a "pickup" url with a code).

Those e-cards are generally used for spamming and phishing; I don't know of any legitimate use for them, so my systems are always set to treat them as spam. Am I alone in this?

[leetata]

Originally Posted by orangemike

Those e-cards are generally used for spamming and phishing; I don't know of any legitimate use for them, so my systems are always set to treat them as spam. Am I alone in this?

Yes, some ecards are used for those reasons. But, e-cards are generally NOT used for spamming and phishing. The percentage of email used for spamming and phishing are much higher than the percentage of ecards used for those reasons. However you treat "email" differently from "ecards" not because of the greater potential threat but because if you treat "email" like "ecards", there won't be any email for the recipients to read:-)

http://tinyurl.com/yqo7xq
"According to Symantec Corp., the percentage of all e-mail labeled as spam stayed constant last month at around 70%, down from an 80% spike in mid-January."

Do check out ecards from AmericanGreetings.com and my site, Ojolie.com.

[orangemike]

Originally Posted by leetata

Do check out ecards from AmericanGreetings.com and my site, Ojolie.com.

That was not a personal slam at your site/firm, Leetata, but a general rule of thumb. I don't care for hard-copy greeting cards much, and certainly see no point to them in electronic form: when they are NOT malware, they tend to be a haven for bad jokes (especially dull and/or vulgar Flash "humor") and sloppy sentimentality. I feel no sense of loss since I started dumping all such products in the ol' bitbucket. When my family wants to send me a note, they send me a note; I cherish a couple of genuinely personal paragraphs from my sisters, nieces, etc. far more than any "card" could ever move me.

[sofakingdabest1]

Senders and recipients must subscribe. Get email manager software.

[qoregexp]

I think what you need to do is make the bounces go to the people who are sending the ecards, not to you.

This is how I do it (php):

$bounce = '-f' . $card_data['From_email'];
mail($card_data['To_email'], "You've received a Greeting Card!", $message, $headers, $bounce);

The 5th parameter to the mail function is for any extra directive you want to give to sendmail, in this case a bounce override.