Right now I'm cleaning out the Junk Mail folder of my email. I make sure the To line in the forwarded section lists my email, and that the From line has the (forged) email address the spammer used. I also ensure the body has the URL of the spamming website.

But on occasion I still get this error message from megamailservers.com ...I think it's upstream of my ISP.

----- The following addresses had permanent fatal errors -----
(myreportingaddress)@coldrain.net
(reason: 550 5.7.1 m4V9r2MA031538 This message does not comply with required standards.)
(expanded from: (myreportingaddress)@coldrain.net)

----- Transcript of session follows -----
554 5.3.0 Who are you?: No such file or directory
... while talking to localhost:
>>> DATA
<<< 550 5.7.1 m4V9r2MA031538 This message does not comply with required standards.
554 5.0.0 Service unavailable


What exactly am I doing wrong? Does Knujon has "required standards" for reporting, or is the mail daemon close to my ISP having a fit?

maybe due to the way spammer software formatted the message it can not be forwarded by anyone correctly

Cudni

This is an SMTP Protocol Error. It has nothing to do with the content of the message. A google search on the error numbers brings up "unable to relay" meaning that a server that your message is being passed through does not recognize the destination email address and is not configured to pass it on to a server that does. Check for typos in the reporting address that you are using. If the email address is correct, and you are using a desktop email client like Outlook, Thunderbird or Apple Mail (Not Webmail) check your SMTP server configuration. Make sure you are using your ISP's recommended SMTP server. If those are correct, contact your ISP.

"localhost" - that could/may indicate "your machine" - right?

So, it might be a configuration problem on your end.

I'm kind of confused by your introductory statement though:

Are you modifying the "spam" in any way before you "forward" it?

If you are, don't?

Well, I'd keep the "spam" in-tact, but if you notice some spammer munging, send a blank e-mail as a second e-mail with simply the long-list of spammed domains. I know sometimes the OEM spam in particular will state:

"type fastoem . com into Internet explorer"

Notice the . com spaced out....

Though by now, I'm sure knujon has established a process of detecting this foolish attempt and bypassing the parser

Though it couldn't hurt to send a e-mail to, with your list of commonly "munged" domains.