Ask Me Help Desk - AOL and advertising

AOL and advertising

AOL is suddenly attaching a line to all my outgoing emails (something about "click here to get your credit score").

I contacted them and said I'm not advertising for AOL, take that off my emails.

They said they don't have to but have nothing to back statement up. They also can't tell me how to block that line from appearing. Meanwhile, it's still there.

I can't find anything on the subject. Does anyone know if AOL can legally do this? And who knows what they'll decide to advertise next?

It's particularly offensive because it's on my business email address - !

Are you using the free service or the subscription service?

Quote:

Originally Posted by ScottGem

Are you using the free service or the subscription service?

Subscription. I didn't know it could ever be free. :)

AOL turned in a free service (limits what you can access) a couple of years ago. Go to keyword Pricing Plans on AOL and you can regiater for the free service if you want. They shouldn't be adding advertsing for paid subscriber e-mails.

Judy - This is one of the reasons I dumped AOL years ago. I used to have a severe problem with them when trying to access my email or even get online. I would call them up and ask what was going on and they would happily tell me that I had been supposedly sending naughty emails to people AND have a very naughty web page and that they had to freeze my account. The only problem with this is I didn't know enough people to even want to send emails to naughty or clean and I hadn't the faintest clue how to set up a web site AND that I was asleep in my bed for hours before and after I was supposedly doing this activity on line. They would pull this cute little gig on me at least once a week!!

I dumped them as soon as I could. I've also read other horror stories about them and don't really recommend that particular service unless there is virtually no one else to go with.

This is just my opinion of them... from personal experience.

Quote:

Originally Posted by twinkiedooter

Judy - This is one of the reasons I dumped AOL years ago. I used to have a severe problem with them when trying to access my email or even get online. I would call them up and ask what was going on and they would happily tell me that I had been supposedly sending naughty emails to people AND have a very naughty web page and that they had to freeze my account. The only problem with this is I didn't know enough people to even want to send emails to naughty or clean and I hadn't the faintest clue how to set up a web site AND that I was asleep in my bed for hours before and after I was supposedly doing this activity on line. They would pull this cute little gig on me at least once a week!!!!

I dumped them as soon as I could. I've also read other horror stories about them and don't really recommend that particular service unless there is virtually no one else to go with.

This is just my opinion of them........ from personal experience.

I have to say here that this was not totally AOL's fault. This did happen to a lot of members, but what was actually happening was this:

Because AOL had, by far, the largest number of members with a lot of them inexperienced with the Internet, it was also the biggest target of phishers. AOL members were bombarded with attempts to gain access to their accounts. Phishing scams of various types from trojan downloads to tricks to obtain info abounded. And AOL members, due to their inexperience fell for them in droves.

So, I suspect that's what happened with you. You probably downloaded a keylogger or other trojan. The phishers were gaining access to your account and using it for naughty purposes. And you were getting blamed. Yes AOL needed to educate and protect its members better. But its members needed to learn to protect their accounts as well.