AOL customer list stolen, sold to spammer

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http://msnbc.msn.com/id/5279826/

AOL customer list stolen, sold to spammer

Former employee charged with stealing subscriber listBy Bob Sullivan

Technology correspondent

MSNBC

Updated: 6:19 p.m. ET June 24, 2004A former AOL employee was charged

Wednesday with stealing the Internet provider's entire subscriber

list -- over 30 million consumers, and their 90 million screen names -

- and selling it to a spammer.

The employee, a 24-year-old software engineer named Smathers,

was arrested Wednesday at his residence in Harpers Ferry, W.Va.,

according to the U.S. Attorney's Office in the Southern District of

New York.

According to a complaint filed before Judge J. Peck, Smathers

accessed AOL's subscriber list in May 2003, then sold the list to 21-

year-old Las Vegas resident Dunaway for an unknown sum. Dunaway

was also arrested Wednesday.

Authorities allege Dunaway used the list to promote his Internet

gambling business, and then resold it to another spammer for $52,000.

That spammer, who isn't named in the complaint, eventually agreed to

cooperate with authorities and fingered Dunaway to U.S. Secret

Service Agent Cavicchia, hoping for leniency from government

prosecutors.

The unnamed spammer admitted to using the AOL e-mail addresses to

send e-mail marketing herbal penile enlargement pills. The spammer

also told authorities than Dunaway claimed to be making $10,000 to

$20,000 per day from his Internet gambling business.

AOL said no users will be forced to change their e-mail address

because of the theft. Instead, the company will simply continue to

attempt to block spam before it hits users.

" What we are doing for consumers is cooperating with law

enforcement, " said Graham, AOL spokesman. " AOL members can

rely on us to tighten our filters, get them more tools to fight spam,

and file lawsuits against spammers. Our anti-spam efforts are still

hitting on all cylinders. "

Other personal data also stolen

According to the complaint, information on AOL's 30 million

subscribers is maintained in the company's " Data Warehouse, " and

access is limited to a small number of employees. Smathers, who

worked at the firm's Dulles office, didn't have access to the data,

but he impersonated another employee to reach it, the complaint says.

Smathers, who had worked at AOL since 1999, got more than screen

names, according to the complaint. He also allegedly stole related

zip codes, credit card types and telephone numbers. But he did not

get credit card numbers, the complaint says, because they are stored

separately by the company.

A search of Smather's employee computer last month revealed

electronic conversations he had with Dunaway describing the heist,

according to the government. After stealing the entire screen name

database in May 2003, Smathers went back and got an update in March

2004, taking another 18 million screen names. Dunaway paid $100,000

to Smathers for the updated list, and later sold it to the unnamed

spammer for $32,000.

During their investigation, AOL technicians discovered a telling file

on Smathers' computer, which included a conversation between Smathers

and a correspondent named " The Brews. " Initially, the correspondent

complains that most spam lists include many fake and invalid AOL

addresses.

" Well . . . it would be different if you mailed current AOL members.

But the lists I use, and others have used, are just collected lists

where people have to enter their emails and all there is thousands

and thousands of fake emails. If you have a database of REAL emails,

that were fresh, the ratio of sign ups would be sooo much greater. If

you have any ideas on bulk mailing with AOL lol let me know and I can

get you a program set up in a heart beat. heh. "

To that, Smathers replied: " Well I'll check it out ... It isn't going

to be easy. I think I found the member database ... Just need to

figure out how to get the SNs [screen names] it is spread over like

30 computers ... You can't talk about this. "

[Guest guest]

In a message dated 6/26/2004 11:39:13 AM Pacific Standard Time,

REHammett@... writes:

AOL customer list stolen, sold to spammer

Former employee charged with stealing subscriber listBy Bob Sullivan

Technology correspondent

I sent this on to my other loops, too. It is just so frustrating that for

every wonderful thing they do like pc's, there is some spoil sport out there

trying and succeeding to get rich. Thanks , I really appreciate it.

Hugs,

marilyn