Set up abuse@ and postmaster@ mailboxes

Article author
Bryan Garcia
  • Updated

Considerations

There are a few reasons why abuse@yoursendingdomain and postmaster@yoursendingdomain mailboxes are important.

 

1. ISPs (Internet Service Providers) may expect that you have these mailboxes set up.

Our deliverability partners will send emails to these addresses periodically to see if you respond. Responding in a timely manner to abuse and postmaster requests shows that you are a responsible sender, i.e., not a spammer.

Many organizations have the mailboxes redirect incoming emails to these addresses to another mailbox for monitoring. For example, both might redirect to the information mailbox or a communications manager.

 

2. Yahoo feedback loop

Yahoo requires the postmaster@ address to exist in order to activate the Yahoo feedback loop if you are publishing a custom DKIM record. Feedback loops send abuse complaints (spam reports) back to WordFly. Yahoo is the only FBL that requires the postmaster mailbox.

 

3. Savvy subscribers might email you through these addresses

There are subscribers out there that might email one of these addresses to report an issue or request to be unsubscribed from your email list. It’s important to watch for these and respond in a timely manner.

 

 

Registering your addresses with abuse.net

Optional. You can choose to register your addresses with Abuse.net, a database for reporting abusive mailing practices. To register your addresses with Abuse.net, you’ll need to:

  • Send a plain text email to update@abuse.net
  • Include the addresses you are registering in the following format: Name of the domain, a colon, and the addresses, all on one line separated by spaces.
  • Please say if you’re providing info on domains you’re responsible for or for ones you’ve researched.
  • Please set your mail program to send plain text rather than HTML mail.
  • The entry for a domain automatically includes subdomains, so if the contact info for mail.example.com is the same as for example.com, do not send separate entries.

Sample email

  ---------------------------------------------------------------------------
To: update@abuse.net
Subject: Registering addresses for [DOMAIN NAME]
--------------------------------------------------------------------------- DOMAIN NAME: abuse@DOMAIN postmaster@DOMAIN I'm responsible for these addresses for the DOMAIN domain name. The abuse and postmaster accounts are actively monitored.