Why is AOL blocking my emails?

Q

I’ve successfully kept in touch with friends via email for years. Lately, though, sending an email to anyone with an @aol address results in a failure. I know very little of what can be done with a computer, but reading around online suggests that AOL might be treating my emails as spam. Is there any way I can get around this problem? Bob Mcdougall

A

It sounds like these are people you’ve emailed many times before, so we’d agree with your belief that AOL might’ve blacklisted you.

This can happen for many reasons but is most often related to the sending of spam. The sad truth is that you needn’t be involved in the sending of junk email. Rather, it’s likely that some nefarious character or group has spoofed your email address with the intention of circumventing such blacklists. There’s nothing you could’ve done to stop this, and yours will be just one of thousands or millions of email identities that have been similarly cloned and abused.

AOL previously trusted your email identity. This is precisely why spammers steal and then spoof such addresses: they get past the blacklists. Your email address is now blacklisted, so the spammers will move on to their next victim – leaving you with this problem. To fix it, you’ll need to create a ticket on the AOL support website at www.snipca.com/26339, explaining clearly the problem you’re suffering (see screenshot).