just been in touch with aol who sent this reply:
Xtra is well known for its open relays, which is a feature of it's setup which allows spammers to thoughput their spam through Xtra.   They are widely blacklisted for it.

My advice to your friends in NZ is to get a Yahoo or Hotmail account and that should sort their problem. I know that both of them can also be installed on Outlook or Outlook Express if that is the mail program they have.


Not that helpful but at least we know where we stand!