US investigators said yesterday they had arrested an America Online employee and a Las Vegas marketer for stealing the Internet provider`s customer list and selling it to a purveyor of spam e-mail.
AOL members were flooded with millions of unwanted messages because of the scheme, according to a criminal complaint filed in US district court in New York.
Jason Smathers of Harpers Ferry, West Virginia, was charged with stealing a list of 92 million AOL customer screen names and selling them to Internet marketer Sean Dunaway of Las Vegas.
Dunaway, who has also been arrested, used the list to promote his online gambling operation and sold it to other spammers, US attorney David Kelley said in a statement.
Both men face up to five years in prison and a fine of $250 000 under a national anti-spam law. Neither could be immediately reached for comment.
Working as an engineer in AOL`s Dulles, Virginia, headquarters, Smathers, 24, was able to access screen names, zip codes and credit card types, though not credit card numbers, of the company`s 30 million customers, the complaint said.
A search of Smathers` laptop computer showed he had discussed ways to spam AOL members in April 2003, investigators said.
Dunaway, 21, sold the list to other marketers for $52 000 in May or June 2003, and sold an updated version in March 2004 for $32 000, the complaint said.
Dunaway paid Smathers $100 000 for the updated list, the complaint said. The complaint did not say how much Dunaway paid for the original list.
AOL said it discovered the activity during a spam investigation earlier this year. Smathers has been fired, the company said.
"We deeply regret what has taken place and are thoroughly reviewing and strengthening our internal procedures as a result of this investigation and arrest," the company said in a statement.
Spam now accounts for up to 83% of all e-mail, frustrating consumers and costing businesses billions in lost productivity and wasted bandwidth.
US authorities arrested four Michigan residents in April and shut down their marketing operation, charging them with violating a national anti-spam law that took effect in January.
AOL and other Internet providers have also invoked the law in civil lawsuits against hundreds of suspected spammers.
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