Noobdy told me about AOL spam!

I applied to AOL yesterday for their broadband service. Within 24
hours I have 5 spam messages in my AOL email inbox. This means that
AOL must have divulged my AOL email address to third parties without
my permission. WTF? Is this true?

Travec

On Wed, 13 Sep 2006 00:12:47, Travec the Dacian wrote:

>I applied to AOL yesterday for their broadband service. Within 24
>hours I have 5 spam messages in my AOL email inbox. This means that
>AOL must have divulged my AOL email address to third parties without my
>permission. WTF? Is this true?

Of course not. Google for 'dictionary attack'.

Ah, you're with AOL - you may get a restricted view...

(Why do people do it?)

--
Jim Crowther. "Life is not a journey to the grave with the intention of
arriving safely in a well preserved body, but rather to skid in broadside,
thoroughly used up , totally worn out and loudly proclaiming;
WOW!!! What a ride." "It's MY computer!" (tm SMG)

Travec the Dacian wrote:

> I applied to AOL yesterday for their broadband service. Within 24
> hours I have 5 spam messages in my AOL email inbox. This means that
> AOL must have divulged my AOL email address to third parties without
> my permission. WTF? Is this true?

Do you have an 'obvious' name like John Smith or even say David Posthlewaite ?

The spammers simply guess some likely addresses.

Best advice is not to use AOL. Whatever were you thinking of anyway ?

Graham

On 13 Sep 2006, Eeyore wrote:

>Best advice is not to use AOL. Whatever were you thinking of anyway ?

Wake up at the back! If you'd absorbed some other threads you'd know that
because of regional funding in his area, the choice of ISPs is very, very,
limited, and AOL happens to be one of the (very) few options.

NoNeedToKnow wrote:

> On 13 Sep 2006, Eeyore wrote:
>
> >Best advice is not to use AOL. Whatever were you thinking of anyway ?
>
> Wake up at the back! If you'd absorbed some other threads you'd know that
> because of regional funding in his area, the choice of ISPs is very, very,
> limited, and AOL happens to be one of the (very) few options.

There was no mention of region or restrictions on ISP in the OP.

Graham

"Travec the Dacian" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:(E-Mail Removed)...
> I applied to AOL yesterday for their broadband service. Within 24
> hours I have 5 spam messages in my AOL email inbox. This means that
> AOL must have divulged my AOL email address to third parties without
> my permission. WTF? Is this true?

I don't get that many in any 24hr period and my address is freely available.
I suspect it has something to do with the regional subsidy you mentioned.

(kim)

On Wed, 13 Sep 2006 02:47:07 UTC, Eeyore
<(E-Mail Removed) > wrote:

> NoNeedToKnow wrote:
>
> > On 13 Sep 2006, Eeyore wrote:
> >
> > >Best advice is not to use AOL. Whatever were you thinking of anyway ?
> >
> > Wake up at the back! If you'd absorbed some other threads you'd know that
> > because of regional funding in his area, the choice of ISPs is very, very,
> > limited, and AOL happens to be one of the (very) few options.
>
> There was no mention of region or restrictions on ISP in the OP.

Indeed...now, slowly... "If you'd absorbed some other threads...".

(or even read this one....!)

Sorry!


--
[ 7'ism - a condition by which the sufferer experiences an inability
to give concise answers, express reasoned argument or opinion.
Usually accompanied by silly noises and gestures - incurable, early
euthanasia recommended. ]

Travec the Dacian wrote:
> I applied to AOL yesterday for their broadband service. Within 24
> hours I have 5 spam messages in my AOL email inbox. This means that
> AOL must have divulged my AOL email address to third parties without
> my permission. WTF? Is this true?
>
> Travec

you should just be thankful you have email in your AOL inbox.

I haven't used AOL for a year or two (and only on dailup) but it was a
solid isp for net access. Didn't like paying for all the useless AOL
content, though.

However, AOL email is only good for contacting other AOL members,
unless they have made changes in the way they filter email then it's
not suitable as a primary email address.

Do they still have the "Today AOL has blocked: 5,666,444,343 spam
emails' counter on the welcome page?!

AOL has a habbit of blocking vast amounts of legit email (this happens
long before it hits the configurable AOL spam filters, you have no
control). Sometimes occasional messages will be disappeared, but it's
common for entire servers to be blacklisted (and even ISPs, BT and
Earthlink were once blocked en masse).

The problem is AOL often blackholes the messages so the sender gets no
notification that an email was not delivered.

As long as you are aware of the problems, it's not a huge issue. At
least you can now contact other AOL members....

Get a gmail account or something, or a clara pop email addy (which can
be accessed from any isp) if they are still doing that never-ending
free dailup trial.

On 13 Sep 2006, Travec the Dacian <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:

> Within 24 hours I have 5 spam messages in my AOL email inbox.

Then consider getting some anti-spam software (K9 from keir.net may help)
and also the option of taking your mail elsewhere (you only need the AOL
mail account for messages from AOL, surely). I have GoogleMail which has
a pretty good spam filter built in. See comments in another thread about a
few options for getting a domain registered and "doing your own thing" with
e-mail, independent of any change of ISP in the next 20+ years!

> This means that AOL must have divulged my AOL email address to third parties
> without my permission.

"must have" is a little difficult to prove, though not impossible.

--
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30 day free trial... <http://2238.runbox.com/>

--
Get 1 GB file storage for free : <http://tinyurl.com/g5sbb>

Can use any FTP client, or use (provided, Windows XP) utility
to back-up specific PC directories to remote storage by using
a schedule, or to always 'keep in sync' with your PC storage!

On Wed, 13 Sep 2006 11:06:25 +0100, NoNeedToKnow <(E-Mail Removed)>
wrote:

>On 13 Sep 2006, Travec the Dacian <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:
>
>> Within 24 hours I have 5 spam messages in my AOL email inbox.

Thanks for your input, guys. I have an existing "@btinternet" pop3
email address, but now that I'm moving away from BT do you think I
will still be able to continue using my BT email addess?