Can DNS outages lead to false bounce spikes?

DNS outages and apparent bounces:

What happens:

DNS unavailable or timing out

Senders cannot resolve MX or authentication records

Temporary failures accumulate

Some may convert to bounces after retry expiration

Symptoms:

Sudden spike in temporary failures

Failures across many recipients at your domain

Delivery resumes when DNS recovers

Distinguishing from real bounces:

Check DNS health during the incident window

Review bounce codes (DNS-related vs recipient-related)

Correlate with DNS monitoring alerts

Monitor DNS availability alongside bounce rates.

Registry office closure causes temporary processing stoppage. Not actual cargo rejection.