e-mails NOT bouncing using mail() - but I WANT them to.

[Aleknevicus]

I have a very simple script to send bulk e-mails to about 1200 addresses. Everything seems to be working correctly except that I am NOT receiving the many bounced messages that I expected once I used live data. (The address list is known to have at least 100 invalid addresses.)

The relevant bit of code is as follows:

-----------------
$headers = 'From: editor@thegamesjournal.com'. "\r\n" .
'Reply-To: editor@thegamesjournal.com'. "\r\n" .
'Return-Path: editor@thegamesjournal.com'. "\r\n" .
'Return-Receipt-To: editor@thegamesjournal.com'. "\r\n" .
'X-From_: editor@thegamesjournal.com'. "\r\n" .
'X-Mailer: PHP/' . phpversion();

mail("invalid@thegamesjournal.com", "hi", "here we are", $headers);
-----------------

I would have thought the supplied header information would be more than adequate but perhaps not? Any ideas on why I'm not receiving bounced messages? Thanks in advance.

[ruturajv]

check using email client like thunderbird if bounced mails are coming...

[Aleknevicus]

Yes, I use Eudora to check for incoming e-mails and have received no bounced messages (from the use of the PHP script I described). If I use Eudora to send an e-mail to an invalid address, I receive a bounced message almost immediately.

[ruturajv]

check through php if you are actually able to send mails

[Aleknevicus]

Hmmm, I'm not sure exactly what you mean by "check through PHP to see if you are actually able to send e-mails".

The script I quoted above does work for actually sending the e-mails (that is, they are received without problem when sent to a valid recipient).

The problem is purely that when sent to an invalid address, no bounced message is returned. Since I have used this script to send a message to at least 100 invalid addresses, I can only assume that the problem is on my end rather than the receivers end.