AOL's spam policy

[Ossama Othman <othman@astrosun.tn.cornell.edu>]

Hi,

I forwarded abuse@aol.com some of the spam the list has been getting.  I
thought that posting what AOL has to say about spam might be interesting.
They also mention spam from Compuserve since AOL recently acquired
Compuserve.  The following is an excerpt from an automated response from
postmaster@aol.com:

-------------------------------------
A NOTE ABOUT JUNK E-MAIL  

A great deal of the junk e-mail reported is forged and, in fact, does not 
originate at aol.com.  In many cases you can use the full 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.  For future reference:

	Valid AOL address can not:
		-be shorter than 3 or longer than 10 characters
		-begin with numerals
		-contain periods, underscores, dashes or other punctuation 
		 characters

Valid AOL mail will have a short, verifiable Received path directly from a 
resolvable host within AOL.COM to your mail host.

AOL does not condone mass e-mailing.  We are working closely with our legal 
and security departments to step up our efforts in combating  junk e-mail.  
This includes deploying new technological solutions, and adopting a more 
aggressive legal posture.

REPORTING INCIDENTS OF INTERNET OR USENET ABUSE

If you are writing to report abuse of the Usenet or Internet, please send 
future reports to abuse@aol.net.  When reporting junk or abusive e-mail or 
Usenet posts by America Online Members, please forward both the full text 
of the message and the full header information. This helps us understand 
the context of the message.  It also assures all parties concerned that we 
are taking action against the correct account as a great deal of the junk 
e-mail we see is forged.

COMPUSERVE:

As you may have heard, America Online, Inc has recently puchased Compuserve.  
Please continue to forward reports of Compuserve member abuse to  
abuse@compuserve.com.  AOL should not be copied on these reports at this time.

----------------------------------



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