AOL and call18866

As many of you will know there is a problem for AOL users and call18866 - see the UK's cheapest home phones provider article.

Call18866 uses e-mail to communicate passwords, yet AOL blocks these making it difficult. I have been in touch with AOL to ask why below is its response.

In the meantime i suggest AOL members who want to use call18866, first set up a hotmail address.

Martin

Reply from AOL

" Hi Martin,

Just getting back to you on your query about call18866, and the fact that AOL is currently blocking its emails.

This is due to an automatic spam block being put in place, which occurs when we receive a certain volume of spam reports from our members about a sender of email. Legitimate companies that comply with the legislation on email marketing can of course be added to our whitelist but their networks have to comply with some basic security standards, as spam attacks often come from networks compromised by spammers/viruses.

One standard is called "reverse DNS" - basically a way of authenticating the sender. We cannot unblock a company without this enabled but it is a very simple change and beneficial to all parties. (except commercial spammers.....) We did speak with Call18866 previously in this regard but we have not heard from them. Our technical specialist is currently trying to get in touch with Call18866 again to offer his assistance.


Legitimate companies can be reported as spam simply because their unsubscribe procedures are not clear or sometimes subject lines look like spam. You can see more of our best practice guidelines at https://www.aol.co.uk/spam, which many e-commerce companies have found helpful in not getting blocked by ISPs and improving their customer communication.


While we are clearly keen to ensure that all legitimate email reaches our members, we are bound to act on our members behalf if they tell us that a source is spam, as they are the ultimate arbiter and under the law we are required to abide by opt-in requirements.

I hope this answers your query. We'll keep you updated on the situation.

Regards,

Communications manager, AOL UK"