[FAQ] Why is AOL unsafe? How can I make it safer? [Updated 11-24-2016]

Updated 11-24-16 to change recommended add-ons and browser tools to include McAfee’s Site Advisor instead of Web of Trust. Web of Trust is currently not available for use in most web browsers over data-selling and other issues that have recently come to light.

This may come as a surprise, but you’re not staying safe by using AOL. Every day you encounter possibly unsafe ads, phishers and Nigerian scams. AOL is not protecting you (or me) from such routine online dangers.

AOL Email is Unsafe

Clicking the Spam Button in AOL’s email doesn’t make scams or phishers go away – for every email you mark “Spam”, more spam arrives in its place. Anyone can get their bulk (and sometimes, spammy) email whitelisted by AOL because it’s not a matter of the sender having a good website or email for you to read; it’s a matter of them wanting to send out email in bulk. Whoever’s willing to do so can get whitelisted. And your GoodMail? Really not so good, if you’ll pardon my pun.

[FAQ] The All-In-One AOL Email and Address Book FAQ

The most frequent questions I get are: “How do I find, save, and import my AOL email and Address Book?” I think the reason I keep getting such questions – in spite of my Email FAQS – is that this blog has lacked (until now) a quick overview of all your options.

I never needed to save or export AOL email when I was still a subscriber or even once I canceled AOL, so just thinking about answering these questions makes me nervous. That said, I’ll do my best to gather every possible answer here. This will probably be the last time I do this, so please, no more emails about AOL email….thanks. 🙂

Standard Warning

Before you read this, it’s important to know that you don’t need AOL software or any software to get your AOL email. Once you cancel AOL and remove AOL from your computer, just sign in at http://aol.com/ to read and write your email. AOL mail is free and yours to keep, forever, even once you cancel AOL.

The web version of AOL mail does everything the desktop version does: it saves hard copies of email to your PC, it allows you to read and reply to your email using rich or plain text formats, and it stores an unlimited amount of your email.

How to keep your AOL email, Address Book and AOL Favorites when you quit AOL.

Before you read this, it’s important to know that you don’t need AOL software anymore to get your AOL email. Once you cancel AOL and remove AOL from your computer, just sign in at http://aol.com/ to read your mail online.

The online version of AOL mail does everything the offline version does: it saves hard copies of email to your PC, it allows you to read and reply to email using rich or plain text formats, and it stores an unlimited amount of email.

If you would like to use the AOL program on your computer despite this warning, read on…

How to Quit AOL (Main FAQ)

AOL’s software and services, like email accounts, have been given away for free to AOL members in the US and the UK since August of 2006. This FAQ answers your questions about canceling payment of AOL, converting to a free AOL account, and removing AOL. Just click the links below to be brought to the Questions and Answers that you need.

Questions

• How do I contact AOL to cancel my service and/or change my price plan to “free”?
• If I cancel AOL, can I use my existing AOL email addresses with AOL’s free email service?
• Do I need to use AOL’s software or keep paying for AOL if I connect to the Internet with another ISP?
• How do I uninstall AOL/AIM/other AOL products?
• How about importing my AOL email into Outlook or another program? Or simply deleting my AOL or AIM screen name?

Leaving AOL? How to collect your email.

Updated 8-20-12.

Software: AOL Email.

Replacement: POP Peeper.

Difficulty Level: Easy

For people who’ve never had any ISP (Internet Service Provider) except AOL, “How will I survive without them?” is a good question. POP Peeper can download your AOL email to your Desktop so you don’t have to sign into AOL for it. You can read and write messages directly from it. If you’re planning on canceling AOL and want to try this out, you should sign up with a new Internet service provider and install POP Peeper before you call AOL to cancel your account.

Send and receive AOL email from your free POP Peeper email client instead of logging into AOL.com or using AOL’s software. It’s no harder than typing in your AOL screen name, password, the name of AOL’s email server, and asking for SMTP Authentication just one time. Set it and forget it. On a scale of 1-10, this is just plain easy. Download POP Peeper here, then follow the steps below, which show you how I set up my AOL email address to work with POP Peeper.