How not to turn your application into a spam relay

Spammers have started abusing other application to send their spam. This works like this:

• The application has some form that allows to send e-mails to arbitrary users. This can be something like a newsletter sign-up with a double-opt in, a registration confirmation e-mail (or even password reset e-mail), or something similar.
• The e-mail also includes some reflected text. For example, a user may be able to give their name, and the name is used within the e-mail. The spammer will then abuse that text to include his advertisment.

Potential counter measures are:

• Add a captcha.
• Rate limit the sign-up or password-reset.
• Do not reflect arbitrary text.