A software engineer working for America Online was on Wednesday night charged with stealing the internet service provider’s entire subscriber list and selling it to spammers, the senders of unsolicited junk e-mails.
Jason Smathers (24) was arrested on conspiracy charges at his home in West Virginia, close to AOL’s headquarters, where he had worked since 1999. Sean Dunaway (21) who bought the list of 92-million screen names, was arrested in Las Vegas.
Although detailed customer information was obtained, there is no evidence that any credit card details were stolen.
According to the indictment, Smathers used his skills to steal AOL’s database of customer account screen names in May 2003. He sold the list to Dunaway and possibly others. Dunaway allegedly used it to promote his own internet gambling website and is said to have boasted that spamming was bringing in up to $20 000 a day.
Dunaway is said to have sold the list on, including to someone marketing herbal penile enlargement pills. The buyer apparently paid $52 000.
Realising the value of the list, Dunaway later paid Smathers another $100 000 for an updated version, which he again sold to third parties.
The pair face up to five years in prison and fines of $250 000.
Smathers is alleged to have used a colleague’s identification code to gain access to the customer details. He was able to download screen names, related zip or postal codes, credit card types and telephone numbers. AOL has around 30-million subscribers but many of them have multiple accounts, which is why the number of screen names is far higher.
But he was not able to secure credit card numbers, which are stored by AOL in a separate, highly secure data warehouse.
AOL said Smathers had been fired last week. It said in a statement: ”We deeply regret what has taken place and are thoroughly reviewing and strengthening our internet procedures as a result of this investigation and arrest.” – Guardian Unlimited Â