How to disable default email

[selfwebhosting]

I receive a lot of junk mails that are sent to my catch-all email at [email protected] where username is the account username. So I have turned the catch-all function off. Now I no long receive junk mails sent to [email protected] but I continue to receive junk emails that are sent directly to [email protected]

I remember before switching from cPanel to DirectAdmin, the turning off of the catch-all bounces mail sent to [email protected] as well as [email protected] because [email protected] is considered as the default email which is really the email gateway rather than a physical email account. Don't quite understand why DA does thing differently from cPanel. Is there a way to disable the default email but still is able to receive emails sent to a physical email address that is manually created?

 

[Webcart]

Create .forward file in /home/USERNAME/ directory that contains somethign like:
[email protected]

Then set up [email protected] as mail forwarder to :fail:

I realize that's not a perfect solution, but it's better than nothing

You could also try editing mail configuration file for yourdomain.com. It's located at /etc/virtual/yourdomain.com/aliases. Replace the line

username: username

with

username: :fail:

Please however note that
1. I DIDNT TEST IT.
2. aliases file might get overwritten by DirectAdmin

 

[selfwebhosting]

username: :fail:

This one works for me! And I can still receive emails at a manually created email account. Thank you!

BTW, in which cases the aliases file can be overwritten by DirectAdmin?

 

[selfwebhosting]

Just to make sure...

:fail: will bounce the email and :blackhole: will delete the email without bouncing, correct?

Would bouncing the email create an endless email bouncing loop as the spammer may not use a valid email address to send the spams? So would :blackhole: a better setting?

 

[Webcart]

Just to make sure...

:fail: will bounce the email and :blackhole: will delete the email without bouncing, correct?

That's correct.

Would bouncing the email create an endless email bouncing loop as the spammer may not use a valid email address to send the spams? So would :blackhole: a better setting?

I have an idea: try it
Hint: it should not create an endless loop