Verizon FiOS is my Internet service. I have two e-mail addresses that I regularly use: an aol one and a gmail one.
This week I sent an e-mail from my aol account to a family member (who has a verizon.net e-mail address.) It was returned with a message indicating that my IP address was blocked as spam. Oddly, when I resent the message, it went through.
Yesterday, I sent an e-mail from my gmail account, using a different computer, to a hotmail account user. That also got returned with a message saying the "mailbox was unavailable." Researching this phrase turned up a site that explained that hotmail uses that term when an IP sender's address has been rejected as spam.
Researching this issue, I uncovered that my IP address has been blacklisted by both Spamhaus and SORBZ, two companies who apparently specialize in spam control. According to Spamhaus, it is Verizon itself which has requested the block on my IP address (it falls within a range that has been blocked), and only Verizon is allowed to request its removal. It is on their "Policy Block List."
Verizon is the one who assigned me this IP address, and now Verizon is blocking it?
Since this problem has occured while using different computers, I don't think it is a virus issue. Just to be sure, I ran a virus scan anyway and it came up clean.
Please help.