How do I identify the source of email spoofing reports sent to spoof@ebay.com?
Summary
What email marketers say10Marketer opinions
Email marketer from Mailjet suggests creating a suppression list for recipients who report emails as spam or abuse. This prevents future emails from being sent to these recipients, mitigating potential issues with forwarding to spoof@ebay.com.
Email marketer from Stack Overflow suggests implementing VERP (Variable Envelope Return Path). By encoding recipient-specific information in the return-path, you can identify which recipient triggered the report to spoof@ebay.com, assuming the original headers are included in the report.
Email marketer from Mailchimp explains setting up a feedback loop with major ISPs can help identify which recipients are marking your emails as spam. While this is not directly related to eBay, it can identify sources of unwanted email behaviour.
Email marketer from Email On Acid recommends carefully analyzing the headers of the reports received from spoof@ebay.com. Look for clues such as X-Forwarded-For or Received lines, which might reveal the original recipient or forwarding server.
Email marketer from Litmus suggests implementing robust open and click tracking with unique identifiers for each recipient. If spoof@ebay.com opens or clicks links, this can provide a trace back to the original recipient.
Email marketer from Reddit suggests that the email might be auto-forwarded to the spoof@ebay.com address, possibly due to a rule set up by the recipient. They suggest checking recipient-side rules and filters.
Email marketer from Sendgrid recommends running A/B tests with different segments of your email list. By gradually narrowing down the segments, you can isolate the group containing the problematic recipients who are triggering reports to spoof@ebay.com.
Email marketer from Email Marketing Forum suggests embedding a unique, transparent pixel image for each recipient. When spoof@ebay.com loads the image, you can identify the original recipient through your tracking system.
Email marketer from Email Marketing Tips suggests to check the campaigns most reported by spoof@ebay.com. It can be a starting point to find out what they have in common (mailing list, content) in order to discover which user could be forwarding emails.
Email marketer from HubSpot emphasizes using double opt-in for email subscriptions. This ensures that recipients actively confirm their subscription, reducing the likelihood of spam reports and potential forwarding issues.
What the experts say6Expert opinions
Expert from Email Geeks suggests chunking the sends and identifying the segment the address is in by slowly halving the chunk.
Expert from Spam Resource explains the importance of sender reputation and how it can play into emails being tagged as spoofed. By having a strong positive reputation you are less likely to have emails incorrectly flagged or trigger autoforwarding to fraud addresses.
Expert from Spam Resource emphasizes the importance of feedback loops in identifying users who mark emails as spam. They suggest monitoring complaint rates and identifying patterns in user complaints as a means to track down potentially malicious or misdirected reports being sent to spoof@ebay.com.
Expert from Email Geeks suggests the sender may have picked up an address that autoforwards to spoof@ebay.com. They recommend using VERP (variable envelope return path) to encode information about the mailing into the return path address, or adding an opaque token to the headers to identify the original recipient. They advise to stash an email address identifier in a way that spoof@ebay will return it.
Expert from Word to the Wise explains that by creating campaign ids you can more easily see which source created the report. Using tools such as Return Path or 250ok also helps to identify the cause of the issue.
Expert from Email Geeks explains that the spoof@ebay.com address is used to collect reports about spoofing and suggests that the sender may be mentioning eBay in their mail, or that recipients are reporting the messages.
What the documentation says4Technical articles
Documentation from DMARC.org explains that implementing SPF, DKIM, and DMARC can help prevent spoofing. Although this won't directly identify the source of reports to spoof@ebay.com, it reduces the likelihood of your emails being flagged as spoofed in the first place.
Documentation from eBay explains that the spoof@ebay.com email address is specifically designated for reporting spoof emails that fraudulently use the eBay brand. They advise forwarding the suspicious email as an attachment to this address.
Documentation from RFC Editor details the List-Unsubscribe header to identify the source, adding a unique identifier for each recipient could assist in tracking down where the email has been forwarded from. If eBay is reporting emails for a few sources the list unsubscribed header might have been triggered
Documentation from IETF details best practices for creating custom email header fields to track each email. By adding a unique identifier in the header and analysing returned emails from the ebay address, it could be possible to trace where it originated from.