(Visual Basic 6.0) Bounced Email Handling

Demonstrates how to examine emails and detect which are bounced (automated) replies. Classifies each email according to the type of bounce.

Chilkat ActiveX Downloads ActiveX for 32-bit and 64-bit Windows

' This example requires the Chilkat API to have been previously unlocked.
' See Global Unlock Sample for sample code.

Dim bounce As New ChilkatBounce

' The mailman object is used for receiving (POP3) 
' and sending (SMTP) email.
Dim mailman As New ChilkatMailMan

' Set the POP3 server's hostname
mailman.MailHost = "mail.chilkatsoft.com"

' Set the POP3 login/password.
mailman.PopUsername = "myLogin"
mailman.PopPassword = "myPassword"

' Copy the all email from the user's POP3 mailbox 
' into a bundle object.  The email remains on the server.
' (There are other methods for deleting email from a POP3 server.)
Dim bundle As ChilkatEmailBundle
Set bundle = mailman.CopyMail()
If (mailman.LastMethodSuccess = 0) Then
    Debug.Print mailman.LastErrorText
    Exit Sub
End If

Dim i As Long
i = 0
Dim email As ChilkatEmail
Do While i < bundle.MessageCount
    Set email = bundle.GetEmail(i)

    Dim success As Long
    success = bounce.ExamineEmail(email)
    If (success = 0) Then
        Debug.Print bounce.LastErrorText

        Exit Sub
    End If

    If (bounce.BounceType = 1) Then
        ' Hard bounce, log the email address
        Debug.Print "Hard Bounce: " & bounce.BounceAddress
    End If

    If (bounce.BounceType = 2) Then
        ' Soft bounce, log the email address
        Debug.Print "Soft Bounce: " & bounce.BounceAddress
    End If

    If (bounce.BounceType = 3) Then
        ' General bounce, no email address available.
        Debug.Print "General Bounce: No email address"
    End If

    If (bounce.BounceType = 4) Then
        ' General bounce, log the email address
        Debug.Print "General Bounce: " & bounce.BounceAddress
    End If

    If (bounce.BounceType = 5) Then
        ' Mail blocked, log the email address
        ' A bounce occured because the sender was blocked. 
        Debug.Print "Mail Blocked: " & bounce.BounceAddress
    End If

    If (bounce.BounceType = 6) Then
        ' Auto-reply, log the email address
        Debug.Print "Auto-Reply: " & bounce.BounceAddress
    End If

    If (bounce.BounceType = 7) Then
        ' Transient (recoverable) Failure, log the email address
        Debug.Print "Transient Failure: " & bounce.BounceAddress
    End If

    If (bounce.BounceType = 8) Then
        ' Subscribe request, log the email address
        Debug.Print "Subscribe Request: " & bounce.BounceAddress
    End If

    If (bounce.BounceType = 9) Then
        ' Unsubscribe Request, log the email address
        Debug.Print "Unsubscribe Request: " & bounce.BounceAddress
    End If

    If (bounce.BounceType = 10) Then
        ' Virus Notification, log the email address
        Debug.Print "Virus Notification: " & bounce.BounceAddress
    End If

    If (bounce.BounceType = 11) Then
        ' Suspected bounce.
        ' This should be rare.  It indicates that the Bounce
        ' component found strong evidence that this is a bounced
        ' email, but couldn't quite recognize everything it
        ' needed to be 100% sure.  Feel free to notify
        ' support@chilkatsoft.com regarding emails having this
        ' bounce type.
        Debug.Print "Suspected Bounce!"
    End If

    If (bounce.BounceType = 12) Then
        ' Challenge/Response - Auto-reply message sent by SPAM software 
        ' where only verified email addresses are accepted. 
        Debug.Print "Challenge: " & bounce.BounceAddress
    End If

    If (bounce.BounceType = 13) Then
        ' Address Change Notification Message.
        Debug.Print "Address Change: " & bounce.BounceAddress
    End If

    If (bounce.BounceType = 14) Then
        ' Success DSN indicating that the message was successfully relayed.
        Debug.Print "DSN Successful Relay: "
    End If

    i = i + 1
Loop

success = mailman.Pop3EndSession()