E-mail comments to destiny@crl.com.




Hackers have turned AOL's own rules against them, luring subscribers into terminating their own accounts in the Warez chat rooms... (HotWired's Declan McCullagh added some additional comments to this story in his "Fight Censorship" archive, under the headline Those wacky AOLers)


Newsgroups: alt.aol-sucks
Subject: Aol now polices private rooms
From: never@dave-world.net (BANE)
Organization: Your Organization
Date: 3 Jul 96 04:06:21 GMT

After being kicked out of the private room warez2 by an aol staffer here 
is the letter they sent me.

Subj:	TOS Violation Report
Date:	96-07-02 00:45:49 EDT
From:	CATWatch05
To:	Han1234567

Dear Member,

This e-mail has been sent to all of your screen names. If you have 
alread read it under another screen name, please disregard this copy.

A screen name associated with your master account recently entered the 
chat room warez2  This chat room is reportedly being used to illegally trade
software in violation of U.S. law and AOL’s Terms of Service.  In 
accordance with our Terms of Service, AOL reserves the right to treat as public any
private chat room whose directory or room name is published or becomes
generally known or available.  Please be advised that members found in 
these rooms may lose their AOL membership without further warning.

If you entered this room in response to offers of "free online time",
"upgrades of AOL" or the like, you should be aware that these offers are
fraudulent.  AOL does not issue credit through private rooms, and 
upgrades of our software are only available in designated free areas of AOL.  If you 
come across any of these false offers, we would appreciate it if you would 
report them to the Community Action Team (keyword:TOS).  If you believe you 
have entered such a room by accident, please contact the Community Action 
Team as soon as possible (keyword:TOS).  

We remind you that the AOL community depends on our members abiding by 
our community rules.  If you are unfamiliar with these rules, please take 
the time to read AOL’s Terms of Service, which is always available free 
online by going to keyword "TOS". 

If you have any questions or comments regarding this situation, please 
feel free to contact us at the screen name TOSEMAIL1.

Regards,
The Community Action Team
America Online, Inc.





On June 19 the "Concept" virus infected several computers at a West coast newspaper facility....

The computers had all been downloading files from AOL.







The previous rumor has been confirmed...


Received Friday, May 31


Aol Has Devised Some Way To Find Out Who Was In A Room Called Warez Wich Is SpesificLy Used By Hackers To Send Illegal Software. So If Ya Pop In There Your Account Is Cespended Untill You Call Aol And Ask Them To Reactivate It. And If You Are Caught Again In Those Rooms Wich Are Now Labeled Illegal Your Account Will Be Terrminated So It Is Unreversable.



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