I. JUNK E-MAIL
America Online, Inc. ("AOL") does not authorize the use of its proprietary computers and computer network (the AOL Network") to accept, transmit or distribute unsolicited bulk e-mail sent from the Internet to AOL members. In addition, Internet e-mail sent, or caused to be sent, to or through the AOL Network that makes use of or contains invalid or forged headers, invalid or non-existent domain names or other means of deceptive addressing will be deemed to be counterfeit. Any attempt to send or cause such counterfeit e-mail to be sent to or through the AOL Network is unauthorized. Similarly, e-mail that is relayed from any third party's mail servers without the permission of that third party, or which employs similar techniques to hide or obscure the source of the e-mail, is also an unauthorized use of the AOL Network. AOL does not authorize anyone to send e-mail or cause e-mail to be sent to the AOL Network that violates AOL's Terms of Service. AOL does not authorize the harvesting or collection of screen names from the AOL service for the purpose of sending unsolicited e-mail. AOL reserves the right to take all legal and technical steps available to prevent unsolicited bulk e-mail or other unauthorized e-mail from entering, utilizing or remaining within the AOL Network. Nothing in this policy is intended to grant any right to transmit or send e-mail to, or through, the AOL Network. AOL's failure to enforce this policy in every instance in which it might have application does not amount to a waiver of AOL's rights.
The above AOL
policy on unsolicited bulk e-mail can be found on AOL Legal's web page.
Additional information on AOL's campaign against junk e-mail
can also be found on their web page: http://legal.web.aol.com/.
2. What do I do if I get junk e-mail that appears to be sent by an AOL Member?
You can forward reports of Internet e-mail abuse involving AOL Members to abuse@aol.net.
When reporting junk, abusive or unwanted e-mail from AOL Members, please forward the full text of the message along with the full header information. For any Internet provider to "take action" on an account that is abusing their system, the abuse handler needs to see a forwarded copy of the e-mail along with the full headers, including the "Received" header lines. This way, all parties concerned can be sure that the correct account is being actioned. The full headers also help the abuse handler understand the delivery path the junk e-mail has taken. We MUST have complete information to investigate abuse reports. All complete reports will be thoroughly investigate.
3. Where should I report other AOL Member Internet abuse, such as Usenet misuse?
Other AOL Member
Internet abuse should be reported to abuse@aol.net
as well. Be sure to include as much information as possible, including
the header information from Usenet news articles and log entries when applicable.
4. Since AOL now owns Compuserve, should I send reports of Compuserve Member abuse to AOL too?
No. Please continue
to forward reports of Compuserve member abuse to abuse@compuserve.com
. AOL should not be copied on these reports at this time.
5. I have reported abuse to AOL’s Abuse Department, can you tell me what action was taken on the account that I reported?
No. For confidentiality
reasons, we cannot disclose the status of the account that you have reported.
We will, however, thoroughly review your submittal in order to take the
appropriate action. This may include any of the following; written warnings,
account termination, and when necessary we will cooperate fully with local,
state, and federal law enforcement agency investigations.
6. I heard that e-mail headers are sometimes forged by spammers, what does that mean?
Mail headers are the portion
of the mail message that contains technical information about the mail.
This includes identification of the sender, the recipient, and the delivery
path that the message took. The "Received" lines show the systems that
the mail passed through to get to you. Generally speaking, the term forged
headers refers to any attempt made by a junk e-mailer to disguise the information
contained in the e-mail headers. By disguising the origin of the e-mail,
it can make tracking down the true origin and reporting it to the right
Internet Service Provider difficult.
7. If the e-mail headers are forged, how can I tell who really sent the junk e-mail that I received?
A great deal of the junk e-mail reported to us was forged. In many cases you can use the full e-mail headers, including the "Received" lines, to discern its true origin. If e-mail headers have not been tampered with, the last "Received" header line will usually tell you the domain from which the junk e-mail originated. If the headers have been tampered with or if the path the e-mail followed is particularly long or confusing, then reading the "Received" lines can get a little tricky.
Valid AOL mail will have a short, verifiable Received path directly from a resolvable host within AOL.COM to your mail host.
To learn more
about reading Internet e-mail headers, click here.
If you would like to suggest additions to this page, or if you have general comments regarding this page, you can send e-mail to PMFAQ@aol.net.
If you would like a printable copy of this FAQ, click here.