To expand on this a bit, when you mailed an attachment on AOL, it would upload and be hosted on their servers. So when you forwarded that email to someone, the download was just a pointer to the original location on their servers. Warez groups would recruit people for positions likw uploaders with strong connections who would just send tons of mail with attachments (to themselves I think). Then the progz/bots, called Mass Mailers (MMers) would sit in a private chat and wait for commands.

Sending the `/list` command in chat would result in one or more emails with lists of software, usually split up to reduce file size. If I were looking for PhotoShop, I might see something like:

[400] PhotoShop 4.0 (cracked by Foo) 1/4

[401] PhotoShop 4.0 (cracked by Foo) 2/4

[402] PhotoShop 4.0 (cracked by Foo) 3/4

[403] PhotoShop 4.0 (cracked by Foo) 4/4

I'd then send `/send 400-403` in the chat and in a few minutes I'd have four forwarded emails containing a portion of an archive. You'd do this for a bunch of stuff and then when going to bed, let AOL's download manager download everything overnight. AOL did more for the WaReZ scene than anyone else in the mid-to-late 90s.