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>Penis pill peddler stiffs AOL spam insider >By Andrew Orlowski in San Francisco >Published Thursday 24th June 2004 00:32 GMT >An AOL employee has been arrested and charged with >conspiracy, after selling 92 million screen names to >an Internet gambling operator in Las Vegas. 24-year >old Jason Smathers found out how to access what the >charges describe as AOL's "highly secure database" >when he was assigned another employee's laptop PC. All >the instructions he needed were on the machine. > >Using his, er, AOL email account, Smathers got in >touch with Sean Dunaway, who then sold the list onto >spammers. Dunaway later boasted of using the list to >boost his own Internet business and charged $52,000 >for the full list, or $2000 for each letter of the >alphabet, according to police charges. Smathers also >gave himself away by using his new database privileges >to first check on his own AOL account. > >The scam came to light when one of Dunaway's >customers, whose job we learn, "is primarily the >sending out of masses of unsolicited e-mail marketing >herbal penile enlargement pills." This source, who >isn't named, hopes to mitigate his participation in >spamming. > >It may be the first time anyone has had a reason to >stand up and salute someone working in this particular >line of business. > >The prosecution, if successful, will be a high-profile >victory for the much-derided CAN-SPAM Law: Smathers >and Dunaway face up to five years in jail, or six >figure fines. AOL stressed that Smathers, who has been >sacked, didn't gain access to credit card records. ®

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