"Mail Exploders"

[John Young]

   On Nerd AOL using explosive mail, this Cyberia-L pointer:  
  
      http://infolawalert.com/stories/061496a.html  
 
   [Excerpts]  
 
   Cyber Promotions sends a collection of short ads, written 
   as if they were newspaper classifieds, to upward of 900,000 
   recipients, 600,000 of whom are America OnLine subscribers. 
 
   America OnLine contends that its computer systems have been 
   swamped by Cyber Promotion's mass mailings, especially when 
   5,000 undeliverable messages start to pile up each day. ... 
 
   When the mailings continued, an AOL employee collected a 
   bunch of Cyber Promotions's undeliverable messages and 
   redirected them to UUNET, a large Internet service provider 
   used by Cyber Promotions. 
 
   According to Cyber Promotions' complaint, this "stunt, 
   known as an 'e-mail bomb,' was knowingly and maliciously 
   sent to UUNET by AOL in order to severely tie up and/or 
   bring down UUNET's computer system." UUNET subsequently 
   cancelled Cyber Promotion's account. 
 
   According to Cyber Promotions' complaint, AOL bombed 
   another service provider used by Cyber Promotions. ...