I just got an error message on a failed email delivery - stating that my server is being used to transmit unsolicited bulk email to AOL and that AOL cannot accept further email transactions from my server. It indicated that I should have my ISP contact AOL to resolve the issue.

Have you ever heard of such a thing and what would cause it???

Lydia
It appears to me like the issue is between your ISP and AOL. Sounds as though AOL is not accepting any mailings from your ISP. I think the notice you received is just an explanation as to why your mail was not delivered. I would call your server to resolve this.

...when I get email in my Hotmail account from someone new (someone whom I haven't entered an address for) it automatically goes into my Bulk Mail folder. I have it set up that way, but I look at that mail and determine whether or not it IS Bulk Mail before I either delete it or add the new person to my Hotmail address book.

It's also possible that AOL has some sort of facility to bounce emails depending on the email filters the recipient has set up. You could try calling that person to if it's the case.

Or, I could be totally off-base (since I don't have AOL and have no idea how it really works), Di is exactly correct, and I've just wasted some more of KK's bandwidth. LOL

some spammers set up their messages to give a false return address. You don't need to have access to the account to do this, and it's actually amazingly easy to give yourself any return address you want. There's a good chance that this is what happened. If you want to keep sending to people with AOL addresses, you'll have to follow their suggestion or get a new email account.