[Flora-help] [Fwd: AOL email concerns for flora.ca]

[Russell McOrmond]

I'm just letting people know about this. I think these messages are
from AOL. Since there is no SPAM received from FLORA addresses, I'm
assuming it is people who disagree with mailing lists they have
subscribed to.

My advice for people is to move away from AOL as a provider for their
email if they want to reliably receive mail.

-------- Original Message --------
Subject: AOL email concerns for flora.ca
Date: Sun, 12 Feb 2006 10:22:26 -0500 (EST)
From: ***@aol.com



Dear flora.ca,

You are receiving this message via our automated "Report Card" process
(which helps analyze AOL's Internet inbound mail) because our available
data indicate that flora.ca has risen above the acceptable threshold
for complaints:

*Complaint rate: 3.06%

AOL takes proactive steps to contact owners of mail servers whose e-mail
transmissions are impairing the functioning of AOL's proprietary
e-mail system, or causing significant levels of AOL customer complaints.

AOL requests that you take immediate steps to resolve the issues
identified in this AOL Report Card. In the absence of a satisfactory
resolution, AOL reserves the right to take measures to protect its email
network and its member goodwill from any possible damage. These
measures may include declining to accept e-mail transmissions from
flora.ca through AOL's proprietary e-mail network.

AOL strives to provide the best online experience possible for our
members, and we pride ourselves on being intensely focused on consumers
and their needs. Email is a core feature of the AOL service, and the
proper functioning of AOL's e-mail system is vital to our members' goodwill.

Please review AOL's e-mail policies and guidelines, as well as other
technical details concerning e-mail on the AOL network, at
http://postmaster.info.aol.com.

This is an automated notification. Replies to this email will not be
answered. You can find more information concerning report cards at
http://postmaster.info.aol.com/info/reportcard.html.

AOL is eager for you to resolve these issues expeditiously, so we can
continue to provide the best possible e-mail service to our members.

Thank you for your prompt attention to this important matter.

*Complaint rate based on mail delivered to the inbox.

[Bill Royds]

Russell, a spammer has been forging the Greenspace Alliance domain name
(greenspace-alliance.ca) as "From:" in a spam campaign since November (over 20K
bounces in my file). Perhaps AOL is incorrectly associating spam with the forged
source domain. As we are certainly not sending it, we can do nothing about it,
except perhaps change our domain name and remove the original. Do you have the
actual email from AOL. I would like to look at its headers and see if AOL
actually sent this.

-----Original Message-----
Russell McOrmond
Sent: Sunday, February 12, 2006 11:27 AM
To: FLORA.org helpdesk
Subject: [Flora-help] [Fwd: AOL email concerns for flora.ca]
I'm just letting people know about this. I think these
messages are
from AOL. Since there is no SPAM received from FLORA addresses, I'm
assuming it is people who disagree with mailing lists they have
subscribed to.
My advice for people is to move away from AOL as a
provider for their
email if they want to reliably receive mail.
-------- Original Message --------
Subject: AOL email concerns for flora.ca
Date: Sun, 12 Feb 2006 10:22:26 -0500 (EST)
Dear flora.ca,
You are receiving this message via our automated "Report
Card" process
(which helps analyze AOL's Internet inbound mail) because our
available
data indicate that flora.ca has risen above the acceptable threshold
*Complaint rate: 3.06%
AOL takes proactive steps to contact owners of mail servers
whose e-mail
transmissions are impairing the functioning of AOL's proprietary
e-mail system, or causing significant levels of AOL customer
complaints.
AOL requests that you take immediate steps to resolve the issues
identified in this AOL Report Card. In the absence of a satisfactory
resolution, AOL reserves the right to take measures to
protect its email
network and its member goodwill from any possible damage. These
measures may include declining to accept e-mail transmissions from
flora.ca through AOL's proprietary e-mail network.
AOL strives to provide the best online experience possible for our
members, and we pride ourselves on being intensely focused on
consumers
and their needs. Email is a core feature of the AOL service, and the
proper functioning of AOL's e-mail system is vital to our
members' goodwill.
Please review AOL's e-mail policies and guidelines, as well as other
technical details concerning e-mail on the AOL network, at
http://postmaster.info.aol.com.
This is an automated notification. Replies to this email will not be
answered. You can find more information concerning report cards at
http://postmaster.info.aol.com/info/reportcard.html.
AOL is eager for you to resolve these issues expeditiously, so we can
continue to provide the best possible e-mail service to our members.
Thank you for your prompt attention to this important matter.
*Complaint rate based on mail delivered to the inbox.
--
Russell McOrmond, Internet Consultant: <http://www.flora.ca/>
2415+ Canadians oppose Bill C-60 which protects antiquated
Recording,
Movie and "software manufacturing" industries from modernization.
http://KillBillC60.ca Sign-->
http://digital-copyright.ca/petition/
_______________________________________________
Flora-help mailing list
http://list.flora.org/mailman/listinfo/flora-help

[Russell McOrmond]

Post by Bill Royds
Russell, a spammer has been forging the Greenspace Alliance domain
name (greenspace-alliance.ca) as "From:" in a spam campaign since
November (over 20K bounces in my file). Perhaps AOL is incorrectly
associating spam with the forged source domain. As we are certainly
not sending it, we can do nothing about it, except perhaps change our
domain name and remove the original.

I would suggest that this is "worse than nothing". Being forced to
change a domain name because a proprietary email service is
mis-identifying the source of a SPAM? We are all better off just
letting AOL slowly drop off of the Internet.


Having too many people using the same email service is generally a
bad idea, as it encourages those providers to try to break Internet
standards and cause problems for everyone. This is what happened with
the "Email Caller-ID" stuff where Microsoft deliberately killed the
initiative with stealth patents.

Post by Bill Royds
Do you have the actual email from AOL. I would like to look at its
headers and see if AOL actually sent this.

The Received-by: headers did suggest it came from AOL, but without
digital signatures and secure SMTP there isn't any way to confirm.

[Marian]

Post by Russell McOrmond

Post by Bill Royds
Do you have the actual email from AOL. I would like to look at its
headers and see if AOL actually sent this.

The Received-by: headers did suggest it came from AOL, but without
digital signatures and secure SMTP there isn't any way to confirm.

Isn't the problem more likely to be a case of spammers appropriating flora
email addresses and sending spam to AOL email addresses? Maybe I'm not
understanding the situation.
- Marian

[Russell McOrmond]

Post by Marian
Isn't the problem more likely to be a case of spammers appropriating
flora email addresses and sending spam to AOL email addresses? Maybe
I'm not understanding the situation.

If this is the case, then this is a bug in AOL scripts. The "From:"
of a message is similar in authenticity as the Subject: line -- they
mean absolutely nothing, are just strings that can be set to whatever
people want, and can never be used to judge where a message came from.