Quote - Yes, I tried it for several months. As a result my spam increased by more than 500% to the point I no longer use the email address because of the dozens of spam that arrives in it daily.

It allows you to "bounce" mail, and while the mailings returned may say the box is invalid or non existing, these spammers are way too smart for that.  Any kind of reply back to them indicates it's a valid email and as a result they hammer you with more spam.

I downloaded something called "spam fighter", which I found in a link here.  By blocking addresses that are spam, you are helping out other spam fighter client's as well. 

Sometimes more than not...bouncing an email works in reverse. You get more not less.
On my MailWasher, I just "blacklist" the spam and that's helped reduce them.