I wonder if this is a record for the longest time taken to bounce an undeliverable email?

The email was sent by the Anagram Genius Server. (The email version that sent this is now housed at crosswordtools.com).

It was sent on the 26th of February 1997 01:20 UTC and bounced back by Yahoo as undeliverable on the 16th of June 2005 04:32 UTC. i.e More than EIGHT YEARS after it was sent!

The bounce messages reads… “I’m afraid I wasn’t
able to deliver your message… I’m not
going to try again; this message has been in the queue too long“!!!??

Obviously something very serious went wrong with their systems. In fact Yahoo didn’t just send one copy of this bounce message. They sent me some two hundred copies of it (in the space of one minute).

Here is the complete bounce message and headers. (I’ve masked out part of the original destination address with asterisks.)

Received: from mail.sent.com by genius2000.com with POP3
id <"1066731233.91883".williamtp@mail.sent.com> for ;
Thu, 16 Jun 2005 06:44:23 +0100
Return-Path: <>
Received: from mx1.messagingengine.com (mx1.internal [10.202.2.200])
by server1.messagingengine.com (Cyrus v2.3-alpha) with LMTPA;
Thu, 16 Jun 2005 00:33:49 -0400
X-Sieve: CMU Sieve 2.3
X-Spam-score: 1.6
X-Spam-hits: BAYES_00, LONGWORDS, MSGID_FROM_MTA_ID, NO_REAL_NAME
X-Resolved-to: williamtp@sent.com
X-Delivered-to: agserver@genius2000.com
X-Mail-from:
Received: from web50001.mail.yahoo.com (web50001.mail.yahoo.com [206.190.38.16])
by mx1.messagingengine.com (Postfix) with SMTP id DC53F947C92
for ; Thu, 16 Jun 2005 00:33:47 -0400 (EDT)
Received: (qmail 49224 invoked for bounce); 16 Jun 2005 04:33:42 -0000
DomainKey-Signature: a=rsa-sha1; q=dns; c=nofws;
s=s1024; d=yahoo.com;
h=Date:From:To:Subject;
b=Evd6GrNl/ALIDAqunfV7WlN5ruusJFLKtuQkLKKlGycRnRKOJ+BFLBy9ICj
/KRy7eTGUkAWNsKJKqoMO0oswDyX4FYIRfXOXfrBVnrL96nmSbBfmPvLywYKv
E+rj5Atm16JfzDdM027GsJnuOD6l3vFiz9ru4NkWy7nYj8AyN/M=  ;
Date: 16 Jun 2005 04:33:42 -0000
From: MAILER-DAEMON@yahoo.com
To: agserver@genius2000.com
Subject: failure notice
Message-Id: <20050616043347.DC53F947C92@mx1.messagingengine.com>
Hi. This is the qmail-send program at yahoo.com. I'm afraid I wasn't
able to deliver your message to the following addresses. This is a
permanent error; I've given up. Sorry it didn't work out.
<1@web50001.mail.yahoo.com>:
Unable to switch to /nonexistent: file does not exist. (#4.3.0) I'm not
going to try again; this message has been in the queue too long.
--- Below this line is a copy of the message.
Return-Path: 
Received: (qmail 93029 invoked by uid 8243); 15 Jun 2005 03:43:39 -0000
Received: from relay-11.mail.demon.net (relay-11.mail.demon.net
[194.217.242.137]) by mta4.rocketmail.com (8.8.5/8.6.12) with SMTP id
RAA24183 for <*******@rocketmail.com>; Tue, 25 Feb 1997 17:28:05 -0800
(PST)
Received: from genius2.demon.co.uk ([194.222.61.185]) by relay-
11.mail.demon.net
id aa1111500; 26 Feb 97 1:20 GMT
Date: Wed, 12 Mar 1997 01:04:02 GMT
From: The Anagram Genius Server 
Message-Id: ag.47206@genius2000.com
To: *******@rocketmail.com
Subject: Msg9 -- Anagrams of 'Rita Martin Monaco'
Thank you for visiting http://www.genius2000.com/anagram.html
Here is the result of your request. To learn about the software that did
this, visit http://www.genius2000.com/ag.html
Rearranging the letters of 'Rita Martin Monaco' gives:
I am a torn romantic.                   Romantic animator.
I'm a romantic on rat.                  No! I am romantic rat.
No! I'm a romantic rat.                 O man! manic traitor.
Aromatic, torn main.                    I am romantic or ant.
I'm a romantic or ant.                  I am a torn romantic.
I am romantic rat on.                   No! I'm aromatic rant.
Romantic mania rot.                     Moan manic traitor.
Maintain motorcar.                      I'm a romantic on rat.
I am manic rat or not.                  I'm a manic rat or not.
I'm aromatic rant on.                   Aromatic, minor ant.
I'm a romantic to ran.                  Am romantic or an it.
I am moronic tartan.                    I'm a moronic tartan.
I am manic or on tart.                  I'm a manic or on tart.
I'm a con man traitor.                  Moronic mania tart.
I'm an aromatic, torn.                  An aromatic norm it.
No! I'm a romantic rat.                 A romantic, Roman it.
Irritant on a comma.                    Aromatic arm in not.
Aromatic ram in not.                    Not romantic maria.
A torn, I'm a romantic.                 I'm a romantic on art.
A romantic, main rot.                   I'm a romantic or ant.
O man! I romantic rat.                  O man! irritant coma.
I am antic moron rat.                   Rat maniac moron it.
Monitor rat maniac.                     I am manic or to rant.
I'm a manic or to rant.                 Romantic aim on rat.
Am romantic ration.                     I moan romantic rat.
I'm a tart or manic no.                 Mint or an aromatic.
Trim on an aromatic.                    Rain romantic atom.
Manic arm rotation.                     Manic ram rotation.
No! I am romantic art.                  No! I'm a romantic art.
I am romantic ran to.                   I am a manic, torn rot.
O man! rat or manic it.                 I am manic tart or no.
Moan irritant coma.                     Maim torn raincoat.
I'm aromatic ran, not.                  I am romantic or tan.
I'm a romantic or tan.                  Aim or romantic ant.
I'm a romantic on tar.                  Romantic or main at.
I'm romantic or an at.                  Minor maniac to rat.
Motor maniac in rat.                    O man! riot manic rat.
I'm a moron antic rat.                  I am a romantic 'n' rot.
I am moronic rat ant.                   I'm a moronic rat ant.
A moronic, main tart.                   I am torn maniac rot.
I'm a torn maniac rot.                  No! a comma irritant.
I am aromatic 'n' torn.                 I'm a torn 'n' aromatic.
I'm aromatic nor ant.                   Am torn aromatic in.
Romantic it or a man.                   Romantic man ratio.
I am main croon tart.                   I'm a main croon tart.
Not rim an aromatic.                    Aromatic man in rot.
I am romantic art on.                   No! aim romantic rat.
An. I am romantic rot.                  An. I'm a romantic rot.
I'm aromatic 'n' on rat.                Aromatic, Roman tin.
No! an aromatic trim.                   No! I am romantic tar.
The following are the longest words made using some of the letters:
aromatic                                irritant
romantic                                animation
maintain                                notation
raincoat                                rotation
animator                                citation
cormorant                               imitator
inaction                                motorcar
narration                               nominator
tartaric                                traction
triatomic                               anatomic
carnation                               catatonia
catriona                                contrition
macaroni                                macaroon
mactation                               monition
monomania                               mortician
oratoric                                artinian
Anagram engine based on the famous ** Anagram Genius ** software To
order a copy for your Windows PC or Macintosh visit: http://www.genius20
00.com/agorder2.html
Email: agenius@genius2000.com, Tel: +44 151 356 8000