Very short answer: It's an LSMTP bug with no fix... though perhaps  
not entirely LSMTP's fault since it's based on somewhat non-standard  
behavior from the receiving sites.

Longer answer:

We've seen that MANY times.  Finally tracked it down to remote  
servers which terminate an incoming connection improperly -- they  
basically say HELO, then drop the connection.  LSMTP immediately  
retries, over and over and over and over... often 10 or 20 times a  
second.

This is nearly always caused by a particular type of spam message --  
if I recall correctly, something about an e-mail address with a  
return path encoded to include the area it originated from and the  
fact that the spam was processed.  Over many years only twice was it  
legitimate e-mail out of hundreds or thousands of bad ones.  We  
learned to check out the queue every few days and throw away the  
looping messages after taking a peek at pertinent fields.  I think  
you'll find they all are small, well under 2K, and all have very  
similar convoluted return paths.  If they don't, then you might have  
a legitimate message and should look at the body.

Bill

On Mar 16, 2007, at 5:44 PM, Tim Casten wrote:

>  also the domains that are making the multiple connections are
>   showing
>
>   localhost.ultrarpm.com
>   and
>   localhost.fabulous.com