2003 AOL Case Finally Comes To A Conclusion

Published: Friday, July 22, 2005 Online-Casinos.com

BLAST FROM THE PAST

2003 AOL case finally comes to a conclusion

Readers will remember the shocking reports two years ago of the AOL techie who stole 92 million personal email addresses by using another employee's access code at AOL's Virginia headquarters.

Then he compounded the crime by selling this private and supposedly confidential information to a Vegas spam merchant for online gambling called Sean Dunaway, who used it to send unwanted gambling advertisements to subscribers of AOL. Charges are pending against Dunaway

The thief, Jason Smathers was caught and taken to court on a guilty plea, but last December Judge Alvin Hellerstein rejected the plea, saying he was not convinced Smathers had actually committed a crime.

Fortunately, the matter was finalised last week, with Smathers again entering a guilty plea in the U.S. District Court in Manhattan, where the judge said prosecutors now had sufficiently established a criminal case.

By selling the addresses to Dunaway for $28 000, the 24-year-old former American Online software engineer is estimated to have set off an avalanche of up to seven billion unsolicited spamming emails.

Smathers could face up to 2 years jail time, together with mandatory restitution of between $200,000 and $400,000, the amount the government estimates AOL spent as a result of the e-mails.

Federal prosecutor David Siegal said Smathers had engaged in the interstate transportation of stolen property and had violated a new federal "can-spam" law meant to diminish unsolicited e-mail messages.

AOL has since launched a major assault on spam, significantly reducing unsolicited e-mails.