92 million AOL screen names stolen

sold for 1/10th of a cent per screen name

[sun818]

[infoworld.com...]

An employee of America Online Inc. (AOL) was arrested Wednesday for stealing AOL user screen names and selling them to an unsolicited commercial (spam) e-mail operation

[Leosghost]

Which of course is the "official line" that they ( who would never dream of selling their own email lists )are sticking to :)

[john_k]

It would be nice if they go after the spammer for knowingly buying stolen data. And freeze all of their assets during the 8 year investigation. And bulldoze their house. And vacate their parents' pension accounts. And... Sorry - got lost in my own little dream there.

[Leosghost]

I just read the related topic from the same source here [infoworld.com...]

I'm dreaming ..right! "Sloppy code maker" and assorted "you can sign up for throwaway email addy's with us easy as fallin outa bed"..."Host companys" are saying its all someone elses fault!
..
Pinch me!

We're not in kansas anymore toto...!

[isitreal]

Slightly more informative version of the story is here, in theregister.com [theregister.com] and another version is here, in the guardian uk [guardian.co.uk].

You'll see in the register story that it was lax internal security that allowed the guy to get his hands on the database, this is typical for AOL.

This story really is too funny, the number one ISP now has all of its client's emails in the spam world underground. Stuff like this is why I always strongly urge all my friends and clients not to use email provided by large companies like earthlink, msn, or aol. Especially AOL.

[AW_Learner]

According to all of the articles they are only being charged under the new CAN SPAM law. Not being charged with theft or security hacking. At least not as of yet. Conspiracy is a ridiculous law. As though there being more then 1 person involved in something somehow makes it 5 x worse of an actual offense.

I'm interested in people's opinions. Do you think that this news will hurt AOL's business and have any significant effect on how many customers they gain and retain? Time Warner's stock price was unaffected by the news so far.

Also, strictly hypothetically, if AOL was able with the help of authorities to arrest and indict these two without ever making any press releases about it and keeping it out of the news. Plus never telling any of there customers about what happened with there emails. Then you found out about it much later on through a leak of the news, would you think that they were scum for keeping quiet and secret about it? Would you even think that it would be against the law for them to keep it secret from there own customers?

[AW_Learner]

How is this ANY different then AOL Spamming Millions of households with Physical CD's of 100 Free Hours of AOL? I certainly never asked for any of those CD's or gave AOL my home address or permission to mail me! They are the biggest Spammers!

[wattsnew]

But even now, just try to get an order confirmation email to an AOL address that hasn't got your domain whitelisted....this could get interesting for AOL members.