AOL system engineer sells email to spammers

A 'former' AOL system engineer was jailed for 15 months after he confessed to stealing 92m screen names / email addresses belonging to an estimated 30m AOL members and selling them to spammers.

Jason Smathers pleased guilty in February to conspiracy and theft charges and to violation of federal anti-spam laws. He was ordered to pay $83,000 in compensation (three times the $28,000 he made selling the information).