When you see emails in the queue from <smith@ghfgghfghfghfghcghdcghghfghfghcfghfhfghfghfghfghghhfhfhfgfgh.com> one might be understandably suspicious about whether that's a legitimate domain name or not.

Turns out...

We've got a spam feedback loop with AOL to try and help get email delivered there. They've decided that since they are a huge source of junk they need to hold the rest of us to a higher standard. So when a user gets email in their inbox that they don't want (regardless of whether it's something they signed up for or not) they click the "Junk" button and we get an "abuse report" from AOL about it.

Well, I've been seeing a decent amount of junk mail getting returned to us that has been forwarded from local accounts to someone's AOL inbox. Keep in mind, this is not email that's rejected by a junk filter, it's email that AOL's anti-spam didn't catch either. So shame on us for not having a system that's somehow magically smarter.