AOL Employee Arrested For Selling Email Addresses To Spammers
from the feel-safe-now? dept
People have always claimed that AOL often gave out their email addresses to spammers, though many have questioned whether or not that was true. One that that's clear is they make it way too easy for employees of the company to access customer information. A few months ago we wrote about an AOL customer service rep who used the info she had access to in order to insinuate herself into the lives of celebrities who used AOL. The latest is that a 24-year-old engineer at the company has been arrested for selling a database of 92 million AOL user email addresses along with their phone numbers and zip codes. He sold this database to some spammers for about $50,000. How long until a class action suit is filed by AOL customers because the company didn't protect their info?
Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.
Techdirt is one of the few remaining truly independent media outlets. We do not have a giant corporation behind us, and we rely heavily on our community to support us, in an age when advertisers are increasingly uninterested in sponsoring small, independent sites — especially a site like ours that is unwilling to pull punches in its reporting and analysis.
While other websites have resorted to paywalls, registration requirements, and increasingly annoying/intrusive advertising, we have always kept Techdirt open and available to anyone. But in order to continue doing so, we need your support. We offer a variety of ways for our readers to support us, from direct donations to special subscriptions and cool merchandise — and every little bit helps. Thank you.
–The Techdirt Team
Reader Comments
Subscribe: RSS
View by: Time | Thread
Earthlink is just as bad
-Griffon
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
you've got jail
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: you've got spam & lots of it @ Aohell
Aohell is notorious THEMSELVES for selling or "renting" their subscribers information to 3rd parties.
Aohell blathers on about how they protect your privacy and its an outright lie.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
THERE IS NO INGEGRITY... OUT THERE...
various (probably about 70% or more) companys have "moles" in their staff that sell our email addys.. to 3rd-5th parties...!
wake up net surfers!!!
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
hello
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
hello
[ link to this | view in chronology ]