AOL employee sells 92 million addresses to spammer

**JediTricks** · 08-17-2005

http://money.cnn.com/2005/08/17/news...reut/index.htm

This guy worked at AOL and sold 30 million users' account names - accounts can have multiple names, hence the 92 million - to a spammer. I always suspected this happens, I had that happen with Yahoo once where I started a test account with an odd, unguessable name and it started getting spam, I told Yahoo I thought someone there or one of their marketing partners must have had an employee sell my account to a spammer, but they just shrugged me off. So nice to see A) how easy it is for someone in a trusted, major ISP to get away with private information, and B) how pitifully small the pay is for doing so.

**JimJamBonds** · 08-17-2005

I heard this on the radio today, this is really really really bad for my 2 cents. And to think he only got 28 grand for it... granted I'd be happy if somebody gave me a check for 28 k I would have thought that much info would have been worth more. Perhaps he was hard up for money? Anyway I hope this person gets thrown into jail and spends a nice long time in there thinking about what he did.

**Kidhuman** · 08-18-2005

Damn, grab the mustrad, here comes the spam.

**Slicker** · 08-18-2005

$28,000? Boy this guy must've been uber desperate. I got paid $75,000 just to give the email addresses of this forums 7,000+ members.

**darthvyn** · 08-18-2005

Originally Posted by complete moron

In a letter to the judge, Smathers pleaded for leniency. He described himself as "an outlaw" in the "new frontier" of cyberspace.

he's also decided that the first letter of his first name is getting between he and his fans, so he's going by ason smathers.

smathers, you're not an outlaw on the new frontier of cyberspace. you're just a punk kid who's trying to turn a quick buck (i'm sorry, a quick penny... how much did you get paid per address? schmuck...) and it's the oldest story in the book.

leniency. you don't deserve it.

**CaptainSolo1138** · 08-18-2005

Originally Posted by kidhuman

Damn, grab the mustrad, here comes the spam.

Mustard?!?!? Dude, ketchup and cheese is the only way to eat a Spam sammich.

I recently registered on some website and now I get junk mail up the pooper. I have the option to unsubscribe on 95% of them, but there a couple that don't give me a chance. This is the first spam I've gotten since I got rid of AOL almost a year ago, so I know it's a direct effect.

I don't feel bad for spammers at all. Leniency my a**.