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[renluop]

A friend  left AOL some three years ago, but suddenly his old email account is being used to generate SPAM of the obnoxious kind.

I know that any recipient can block the apparent sender, but is there a method by which he can "spike" the AOL address, assuming it can still be accessed?

Any other approach that could be used?

[sevenlayermuddle]

A friend  left AOL some three years ago, but suddenly his old email account is being used to generate SPAM of the obnoxious kind.

I know that any recipient can block the apparent sender, but is there a method by which he can "spike" the AOL address, assuming it can still be accessed?

Any other approach that could be used?

It's most unlikely the spammers have  accessed his account in any way, they've just got a whiff of his (old) email address and are using it fields such as 'from' or 'reply-to' in the emails they send out.  SMTP allows the sender to set these values to any value at all, and indeed I often 'fake these fields myself when sending from (say) my vodafone mobile phone, such that the email appears to have been sent from my .com address.

Your friend needn't take it personally either, spammers usually just use names randomly chosen from some address list they (or their 'bots) happen to have caught sight of.  Using a 'real' name as the from address increases the chances that somebody will open the mail, which is all the spammers care about.

He could try tracking down the spammers and reporting them to whatever authorities may prevail, but it's likely a big waste of effort.  No much can be done, I'm afraid.