Newbie
09-19-2002, 01:34 AM
Hosts should take AOL's Position against Junk mail and spam. Going to be interesting on what reply they will send me back this time. Funny how AOL just blacklists and sues people yet when you complain about them they ignore it and don't even follow their own TOS.
Posted below it the message I finally got from AOL after the 3rd e-mail from the same sender and the third complaint I sent them about it.
Dear Admin,
Hello! My name is Vinzii and as a Customer Care Consultant from the TechMail Department, it is my pleasure to assist you with issues or concerns regarding America Online Services.
I understand you have received junk e-mail that appears to have come from an America Online (AOL) member.
I want to thank you for your support and for your report. I apologize for the situation.
As the Internet grows in popularity, unfortunate situations like this become more common. This problem of junk bulk e-mail is not limited to AOL; many online services are experiencing this phenomenon. On AOL, as with many other service providers, sending unsolicited commercial e-mail is a violation of Terms of Service (TOS).
People who send junk e-mail are often very technically savvy and go to great lengths to hide the location they are sending it from. As a result, the header information may have been forged to indicate systems that were not actually involved. Many of these deceptive headers make the e-mail appear to be coming from seemingly legitimate sites. (NOTE: Headers are the lines of information that accompany every e-mail address and show where the message originated from and by what path it got to your mailbox). However, when you send a reply by pressing the REPLY button, e-mail is returned to you as undeliverable. These forged headers are designed to confuse people who are trying to complain. Unfortunately, they also make it difficult for service providers like AOL to block or otherwise filter out offending e-mail; the junk e-mail abusers can simply change their headers to any address that is not blocked.
AOL is cooperating with system administrators at the sites from which such e-mail originates in order to eventually halt the abuse of their facilities.
Your best course of action involves the following four steps:
1. Remove yourself from the distribution list.
If the re-mailer gives instructions on how to be removed from the distribution list, follow those instructions exactly. You do not need to CC the screen name POSTMASTER when doing so, but please let us know if those instructions prove to be faulty.
2. Complain to the other site's postmaster.
You should complain directly to the postmaster at the site from which the e-mail originated. Frequently, such abusive e-mail is a violation of the Internet Service Provider's (ISP's) usage agreement. By looking in the e-mail headers at the bottom of the mail message, you will usually see a line reading something like Message-ID: <9424$2dc2@mail.forinstance.com>. In such cases, try writing to postmaster@forinstance.com and ask that they curb their errant mailer.
Several large ISP's have special addresses for registering complaints. Following is an alphabetical list of some providers, their typical e-mail domains and the addresses you should send complaints to:
CompuServe (compuserve.com)--postmaster@compuserve.com
Interramp (interramp.com)--abuse@interramp.com
Netcom (ix.netcom.com)--abuse@netcom.com
Prodigy (prodigy.com)--postmaster@prodigy.com
If the Message-ID line is missing or looks like it might be fake, then look at the bottom line of the headers which should read something like:
Received: from mail.example.net (mail.example.net [192.229.169.1]) by emin22.mail.aol.com (8.6.12/8.6.12) with SMTP id TAA00559; Sat, 6 Dec 1999 19:13:39 -0500
This indicates that the mail arrived at AOL from a server called mail.example.net. In this example, you would need to contact postmaster@example.net. You can omit the e-mail or any other qualifiers you see in the address. If there are multiple Received lines, please also send complaints to any other domains shown.
Note: It is unnecessary to forward a copy to your postmaster
unless you have a problem contacting the postmaster of
the offending site. Internet protocols require all domains
to accept e-mail addressed to the postmaster at their
domain. If for some reason your mail is returned to you
as undeliverable, this is a flagrant breach of protocols.
Be Careful! Many junk re-mailers know that their recipients will do this, so they will forge the e-mail to make it look like it has come from somewhere else. So be nice, since many system administrators have no idea that their system is being abused. If you are not absolutely sure where the e-mail is originating from, forward a copy of the Internet headers, found at the bottom of the mail message, to your postmaster. Your postmaster will then provide you the means of registering a complaint with that individual.
3. Complain to the advertiser about the re-mailer.
If the commercial re-mailer includes multiple ads including e-mail addresses of the people whose services or products are being offered, you might consider sending a polite message to each of them, explaining your situation. Keep in mind that many advertisers are unaware that the re-mailer they are using sends unsolicited e-mail. Following is an example of you can say:
"Are you aware that the bulk re-mailer you used to advertise your product (or service) sends unsolicited e-mail? By sending me this unsolicited junk mail, you have cost me both time and money. Collect phone calls are a bad method of advertising and junk e-mail isn't any better. Please consider a more reputable means of advertising in the future. Thanks!"
This is concise, polite and, most important, not abusive.
4. Complain by other means.
Some junk mailing companies are proud of their accomplishments and provide information on contacting them by postal mail, phone or fax. By all means, use those methods. You might also consider notifying the Better Business Bureau and other consumer protection agencies in their area to complain about their practices. You should keep copies of your correspondence, both on disk and paper, as documentation of your complaint. Check to ensure everything is dated accurately.
If you continue to receive further junk e-mail from a particular re-mailer, ignoring and deleting the messages may be your only option.
AOL is continuing to work with other Internet service providers to stop this problem. In the meantime, these steps should assist you in helping yourself.
Again, I apologize for the situation and thank you for the report.
Vinzii T.
Customer Care Consultant
The TechMail Department
America Online, Inc.
Posted below it the message I finally got from AOL after the 3rd e-mail from the same sender and the third complaint I sent them about it.
Dear Admin,
Hello! My name is Vinzii and as a Customer Care Consultant from the TechMail Department, it is my pleasure to assist you with issues or concerns regarding America Online Services.
I understand you have received junk e-mail that appears to have come from an America Online (AOL) member.
I want to thank you for your support and for your report. I apologize for the situation.
As the Internet grows in popularity, unfortunate situations like this become more common. This problem of junk bulk e-mail is not limited to AOL; many online services are experiencing this phenomenon. On AOL, as with many other service providers, sending unsolicited commercial e-mail is a violation of Terms of Service (TOS).
People who send junk e-mail are often very technically savvy and go to great lengths to hide the location they are sending it from. As a result, the header information may have been forged to indicate systems that were not actually involved. Many of these deceptive headers make the e-mail appear to be coming from seemingly legitimate sites. (NOTE: Headers are the lines of information that accompany every e-mail address and show where the message originated from and by what path it got to your mailbox). However, when you send a reply by pressing the REPLY button, e-mail is returned to you as undeliverable. These forged headers are designed to confuse people who are trying to complain. Unfortunately, they also make it difficult for service providers like AOL to block or otherwise filter out offending e-mail; the junk e-mail abusers can simply change their headers to any address that is not blocked.
AOL is cooperating with system administrators at the sites from which such e-mail originates in order to eventually halt the abuse of their facilities.
Your best course of action involves the following four steps:
1. Remove yourself from the distribution list.
If the re-mailer gives instructions on how to be removed from the distribution list, follow those instructions exactly. You do not need to CC the screen name POSTMASTER when doing so, but please let us know if those instructions prove to be faulty.
2. Complain to the other site's postmaster.
You should complain directly to the postmaster at the site from which the e-mail originated. Frequently, such abusive e-mail is a violation of the Internet Service Provider's (ISP's) usage agreement. By looking in the e-mail headers at the bottom of the mail message, you will usually see a line reading something like Message-ID: <9424$2dc2@mail.forinstance.com>. In such cases, try writing to postmaster@forinstance.com and ask that they curb their errant mailer.
Several large ISP's have special addresses for registering complaints. Following is an alphabetical list of some providers, their typical e-mail domains and the addresses you should send complaints to:
CompuServe (compuserve.com)--postmaster@compuserve.com
Interramp (interramp.com)--abuse@interramp.com
Netcom (ix.netcom.com)--abuse@netcom.com
Prodigy (prodigy.com)--postmaster@prodigy.com
If the Message-ID line is missing or looks like it might be fake, then look at the bottom line of the headers which should read something like:
Received: from mail.example.net (mail.example.net [192.229.169.1]) by emin22.mail.aol.com (8.6.12/8.6.12) with SMTP id TAA00559; Sat, 6 Dec 1999 19:13:39 -0500
This indicates that the mail arrived at AOL from a server called mail.example.net. In this example, you would need to contact postmaster@example.net. You can omit the e-mail or any other qualifiers you see in the address. If there are multiple Received lines, please also send complaints to any other domains shown.
Note: It is unnecessary to forward a copy to your postmaster
unless you have a problem contacting the postmaster of
the offending site. Internet protocols require all domains
to accept e-mail addressed to the postmaster at their
domain. If for some reason your mail is returned to you
as undeliverable, this is a flagrant breach of protocols.
Be Careful! Many junk re-mailers know that their recipients will do this, so they will forge the e-mail to make it look like it has come from somewhere else. So be nice, since many system administrators have no idea that their system is being abused. If you are not absolutely sure where the e-mail is originating from, forward a copy of the Internet headers, found at the bottom of the mail message, to your postmaster. Your postmaster will then provide you the means of registering a complaint with that individual.
3. Complain to the advertiser about the re-mailer.
If the commercial re-mailer includes multiple ads including e-mail addresses of the people whose services or products are being offered, you might consider sending a polite message to each of them, explaining your situation. Keep in mind that many advertisers are unaware that the re-mailer they are using sends unsolicited e-mail. Following is an example of you can say:
"Are you aware that the bulk re-mailer you used to advertise your product (or service) sends unsolicited e-mail? By sending me this unsolicited junk mail, you have cost me both time and money. Collect phone calls are a bad method of advertising and junk e-mail isn't any better. Please consider a more reputable means of advertising in the future. Thanks!"
This is concise, polite and, most important, not abusive.
4. Complain by other means.
Some junk mailing companies are proud of their accomplishments and provide information on contacting them by postal mail, phone or fax. By all means, use those methods. You might also consider notifying the Better Business Bureau and other consumer protection agencies in their area to complain about their practices. You should keep copies of your correspondence, both on disk and paper, as documentation of your complaint. Check to ensure everything is dated accurately.
If you continue to receive further junk e-mail from a particular re-mailer, ignoring and deleting the messages may be your only option.
AOL is continuing to work with other Internet service providers to stop this problem. In the meantime, these steps should assist you in helping yourself.
Again, I apologize for the situation and thank you for the report.
Vinzii T.
Customer Care Consultant
The TechMail Department
America Online, Inc.