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| 92 million AOL email addresses are said to be in
the hands of spammers. |
A 24-year-old former AOL employee, has pleaded guilty to
stealing a list of 92 million email addresses of the ISP's
customers and selling it to spammers for $28,000.
Jason Smathers of Harper's Ferry, West Virginia, told Judge
Alvin Hellerstein at the US District Court in Manhattan, that he
sold the list of email addresses to a man planning to market an
offshore gambling website to AOL customers, knowing that the list
of screen names might end up in the hands of other spammers.
According to the authorities, Smathers - who was fired by AOL in
June 2004 - used another employee's access code to steal the list
of AOL customers from its headquarters in Dulles, Virginia.
Smathers is alleged to have sold the list to 21-year-old Sean
Dunaway of Las Vegas, to promote an internet gambling website
before being sold on to others. One of the other spammers reported
the theft to the authorities following his own prosecution,
according to court papers. Charges are pending against Dunaway.
"The valuable list of AOL subscribers is still believed to be
circulating amongst the spammer community - although the ISP is
working hard to defend its users from junk email," said Graham Cluley, senior
technology consultant for Sophos. "It is encouraging to see the
authorities cracking down on those who abuse the internet and make
online life a misery for countless millions of web users."
Smathers, who is due to be sentenced in May, could face between
18-24 months in jail, and fines of between $200,000-$400,000.
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Sophos is headquartered in Boston, US and Oxford, UK. More information is available at www.sophos.com.