Archive for March, 2011

AOL won’t shut down SPAMMER accounts

AOL refuses to shut down user accounts that have been shown to send out spam time and time again.  Here’s a spam I recently received:

Return-Path: <smurphygurl19@aol.com>
Received: from omr-m33.mx.aol.com (omr-m33.mx.aol.com [64.12.143.145])
by smtp.domain1.com (8.14.4/8.14.4) with ESMTP id p2R4T2hi001413
for <user@domain2.com>; Sun, 27 Mar 2011 04:29:03 GMT
Received: from oms-mb03.r1000.mx.aol.com (oms-mb03.r1000.mx.aol.com [64.12.102.139])
by omr-m33.mx.aol.com (8.14.1/8.14.1) with ESMTP id p2R4CE0A031002;
Sun, 27 Mar 2011 00:12:31 -0400
Received: from mtaomg-da01.r1000.mx.aol.com (mtaomg-da01.r1000.mx.aol.com [172.29.51.137])
by oms-mb03.r1000.mx.aol.com (AOL Outbound OMS Interface) with ESMTP id 325211C000083;
Sun, 27 Mar 2011 00:12:31 -0400 (EDT)
Received: from core-dac001b.r1000.mail.aol.com (core-dac001.r1000.mail.aol.com [172.29.14.141])
by mtaomg-da01.r1000.mx.aol.com (OMAG/Core Interface) with ESMTP id EA529E000085;
Sun, 27 Mar 2011 00:12:30 -0400 (EDT)
To: xxx@xxx.com
Subject: Hello
X-MB-Message-Source: WebUI
X-AOL-IP: 182.52.68.102
X-MB-Message-Type: User
MIME-Version: 1.0
From: smurphygurl19@aol.com
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=”us-ascii”
X-Mailer: AOL Webmail 33456-STANDARD
Received: from 182.52.68.102 by webmail-m087.sysops.aol.com (64.12.224.201) with HTTP (WebMailUI); Sun, 27 Mar 2011 00:12:30 -0400
Message-Id: <8CDBA4C5359314F-4C0-1365F@webmail-m087.sysops.aol.com>
X-Originating-IP: [182.52.68.102]
Date: Sun, 27 Mar 2011 00:12:30 -0400 (EDT)
x-aol-global-disposition: S
X-SPAM-FLAG:YES
X-AOL-SCOLL-SCORE: 0:2:170288576:93952408
X-AOL-SCOLL-URL_COUNT: 0
X-AOL-REROUTE: YES
x-aol-sid: 3039ac1d33894d8eb92e7742
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit
X-MIME-Autoconverted: from quoted-printable to 8bit by smtp.domain1.com id p2R4T2hi001413

http://cronos.mireene.com/23i42.html

The account for ‘smurphygurl19’ has been used repeatedly to send spam (almost 30 to a single account since last October from my count), yet AOL will not take action against the account and shut it down.  I noticed this in the header:

X-SPAM-FLAG:YES

Does that mean that AOL knows that the email is a spam and yet they’re still delivering it?!?  It would appear that way to me.

Screw the customer – it’s the [Bank of] American way!

I just received my Bank of America statement for my checking/savings account, only to find a NEW monthly fee:

“Check Image Service Fee”

Really?!?  $3.00 per month just to have the images of the checks included with my monthly statement??  Where the hell did this come from???  Here is another article on the new fee.

It’s bad enough that some 5 or so years ago, the banks stopped providing the return of the physical checks in the statements, only providing a crude scanned image of each check!  Now they don’t even want to give us that?!?

What’s even worse are the BULLS**T lines they feed their employees to feed to us when we complain!  (I know it’s not the local employees’ fault – they’re just trying to do what they’re told)  They tried to tell me that I can always go online and print the images from the web site – HELL, I can print the entire statement from there, but I don’t want to!  Considering the ridiculous interest rates they offer, the LEAST they can do is mail me a statement once a month!  Then they said “it’s an extra page…”, so I pointed out that they waste an entire page every month with the “How To Balance Your Bank of America Account” page.  They claimed a lot of their customers still use that to balance their checkbook.  Well, A LOT OF THEIR CUSTOMER STILL WANT THE CHECK IMAGES, TOO!!

And if they’re going to make a change like this, the DEFAULT SHOULD NOT BE to charge everyone an extra $3.00 per month and force them to OPT-OUT – the DEFAULT should be to drop the images from the statement and tell people they need to OPT-IN if they are willing to PAY AN EXTRA FEE!!!

I’ll bet that pretty soon, they’re going to force everyone to go to “paperless” or pay a monthly statement fee!  Then they’ll start charging us to use the ATM – ANY ATM!  Then we’ll even have to pay for each transaction, regardless of where/how we did it (online, ATM, in person, …).

What is this country coming to that the huge companies have to continue to take advantage of and abuse their customers??  They are here for us, not the other way around!!  And then they whine when their profits are down!  I guess they need to screw us to be able to pay their top executives??

I can’t believe Verisign uses Dun & Bradstreet as a reliable source of information!?!

I almost fell out of my chair yesterday when I was talking to someone at Verisign.  They were supposed to be authenticating my company’s identity for a Code Signing Certificate.

I called Verisign support to see why I hadn’t heard from them yet (they were supposed to call me days before).  They said they called the day before, but the phone just rang and rang.  I asked “What number did you call?”, and they gave me a phone number I haven’t had for over 10 years!  When I asked them where they got that number, they said “Dun & Bradstreet”!  I HAD TO LAUGH!!  Here is Verisign trying to verify that I am who I say I am, and they’re relying on information from a known information fabricator?!?  That’s just ridiculous!!!

Here is the disclaimer right from Dun & Bradstreet’s own site:

D&B does not warrant the accuracy, completeness or timeliness of any of the data and/or programs (Information) available at this D&B Site. The Information is provided as is without warranty of any kind, express or implied, including, but not limited to, implied warranties of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, title or non-infringement.

I asked why they didn’t open up Google or Yahoo!, type in my company’s name, and go to the first entry’s web site and find a phone number?  They said they don’t use Google; they only use “reliable online directories”!

It’s been a LONG TIME since I’ve heard someone seriously  use the term “reliable” in the same sentence as “Dun & Bradstreet”!!