America On Line is the largest on line company in the world. They deserve kudos for their achievement. They also deserve a lot of brickbats. But anyone who is out in front always is a spear catcher.
AOL has taken some positions on the subject of unsolicited e-mail. First, they explain it as follows including some pros as well as the cons. They understand that no one is thrilled by it. Please excuse the preformat but all that HTML is just too daunting.
AOL, the largest, most popular Internet online service, is working on many
fronts to put an end to junk e-mail. Yet junk e-mail is not limited to AOL;
all of the major online services and Internet service providers are
experiencing an explosive growth in the transmission of unsolicited,
commercially-oriented e-mail messages.
E-mail addresses are collected using a variety of methods: captures of screen
names in chat rooms, on bulletin boards and Usenet newsgroups and through
searches of the Member Directory. AOL does not provide your e-mail address
to any junk e-mailer.
Much of junk e-mail is sent with a forged header. These false headers make
the e-mail appear to come from legitimate sites, however, e-mail sent back to
the address contained in the header is returned as undeliverable. This makes
it difficult for service providers like AOL to filter out offending e-mail;
the junk-mail abusers can simply change their headers to any address that is
not blocked.
On America Online sending unsolicited, commercial e-mail is a violation of
the Terms of Service. If you receive unsolicited e-mail from an AOL account
you may forward it to either screen name TOSEMAIL1 or TOSEMAIL2. Our Terms
of Service staff will then take appropriate action, which may include
warnings and account termination.
If the mail comes via our Internet mail gateway, there are 4 things you can
do:
1) Follow the directions included in the unsolicited e-mail to be removed
from the distribution list.
2) Occasionally unsolicited, commercial e-mail comes from legitimate sites.
Often such e-mail is a violation of that site's usage agreement. By looking
in the mail headers at the bottom of the e-mail message, you will see a line
similar to: "Message-ID: <9424$2dc2@mail.xoxoxo.com>". You can write to
Postmaster@xoxoxo.com and ask that this activity be stopped. Keep in mind
that many junk-mailers know that their recipients will do this and they will
forge mail to make it look like it came from elsewhere. When you write,
please be polite. Many system administrators have no idea their system is
being abused.
If you aren't sure where the mail is originating from, forward a copy of the
e-mail message to screen name POSTMASTER. We'll provide you the means of
registering a complaint with the sender.
3) If the commercial mailer includes multiple ads with 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 mailer they are using sends
unsolicited mail.
4) Some junk mail companies are proud of their accomplishments and provide
information on contacting them by postal mail, phone, or fax. Please use
those methods. You might also consider notifying the Better Business Bureau
and other consumer protection agencies in their locale to complain about
their practices.
In the event that you continue to receive junk mail, ignoring it may be your
only option.
Remember, AOL has had some legal success in stopping these abusive mailers.
Also, we've created a list of the most active mailers and have successfully
blocked them from sending e-mail to AOL members. You will not receive e-mail
from any of these sites unless you choose to. To see the list and to change
your junk mail preferences, go to Keyword: PreferredMail.
For all your online help needs, visit Member Services, Keyword: Help, often!
Here is AOL's PreferredMail list - read Blocked URLs. It appears to be possible for AOL users to receive mail from these URLs but you get all or nothing. This list was copied at about midnight on February 2, 1997. And now, the list:
..com
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