[monty236]

I am receiving "bounced mail" from Mail Delivery Subsystem <MAILER-DAEMON@aol.com> even though I am NOT sending mail to any AOL address.
The returned email consists of a number of addresses that mail could not be delivered to. "User unknown"
The interesting part is this:
It appears that someone is using my email address to send out spam..
The bounced email shows the content of the email as:
"fred.ackley" <My email address>
I am certainly not "fred.ackley" ...and the idea that someone is using my email address to send out junk is not a pleasant one.
1. What can I do?
My ISP says :
a. It is a virus. I cannot find anything regarding this problem.
or (depending on 'associate'
b. It is a 'glitch'
ANY HELP will be appreciated! Thank you!!!

[Chris Breen]

It's a common spammer technique to forge an email address. It sounds like someone used your email address in this way. The only thing you can do is report it to your ISP and see if they can filter the bounces. Given that you're using AOL, I wouldn't hold out much hope that they'll cooperate.
Because you are on AOL, you can go to Mail Preferences and set your account to refuse delivery from a particular address (MAILER-DAEMON@aol.com, for example). That should keep you from seeing the bounces.
If this kind of thing continues and AOL is no help, consider creating a new email address and abandoning the old one.
Chris

[monty236]

Thanks for response...however, I AM NOT using AOL ..Earthlink

[Chris Breen]

Ah, okay. Earthlink may be the tiniest bit more responsive. Just tell them that a spammer hijacked your address and you'd like them to filter bounces. If they can't do it, set up a filter in your email client to divert the bounces to a junk folder.
Chris