New Mexico Internet Access

Recently, AOL has created a new system as a general response to the spam problem.

It appears that any user can report a received spam message and have the apparent sender of the message, i.e., the "From" address, denied all access to AOL email servers. This happens without any human oversight, yet requires human intervention to correct.

This is a wonderful system, but with one flaw. Approximately 50% of all spam today is sent by virus infections, and _all_ spam today has spoofed "From" addresses. The best sources for addresses to spoof, are virus infections designed to collect the address books of virus infected users. Any innocent tird party who has exchanged email with the infected user, can appear as the "From" address of a spam, and thus will be blocked by AOL.

The "From" address is totally unrelated to the actual sender of a spam, so the AOL system is blocking the wrong address. The actual sender's IP address could be found only by a careful inspection of the full header content of the message. Inspection requires time, a human eye, and intelligence. These last, in rather short supply.

Since these blocks originate from AOL users, we have little influence with the AOL system managers to correct them. Sometimes we can get their cooperation, but AOL subscribers, on the other hand, have great influence.

Thus, the best remedy for AOL's foolish policy is to have your correspondent, the AOL user, call or email AOL and complain that email which she wishes to receive is blocked. This seems to galvanize them into correcting the problem.
Also please see articles at: www.nmia.com/spam.html
Just send email with your questions to help@nmia.com or call 247-0888.