Joe Manna

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August 17, 2005

Ah, pwned. Jason Smathers

AOL, America Online Spam
Ex-AOL Employee, Jason Smathers got owned by a judge for selling 92 Mil. accounts to an “online marketer” (spammer). 15 Months in prison after he wrote a ‘moving’ letter to the judge.

Background: Jason used an exploit on the internal network for the customer service program (maybe its mystical…?). Anyhow, he dumped all the screennames and sold them. He sold it for $28,000. AOL is suing him for damages, $300,000, and the judge added that it should be $84,000 to America Online.

CNN/Money Article

NEW YORK (Reuters) – A former America Online employee was sentenced to 15 months in prison on Wednesday for stealing 92 million e-mail screen names from the Internet company and selling them to a “spammer.”

Jason Smathers, 25, pleaded guilty in February in federal court in Manhattan to charges including conspiracy and interstate trafficking of stolen property. He was paid $28,000 by an Internet marketer for the names, which were taken from AOL’s database of 30 million subscribers at the time. AOL subscribers can have multiple screen names for each account.

Last modified: July 9, 2012

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