AOL Employee Commits Crime most Foul

So much for America Online's claims of a safe community. Such statements get tossed out the window when one of their own fold betrays the trust of AOL subscribers by selling their email addresses to SPAMmers.

Slimeball and soon-to-be former AOL software engineer Jason Smathers used his inside access to steal a subscriber list of 92 million members, selling it to a Las Vegas-based SPAMmer. That "gentleman" in turn sold the list to other SPAMers.

Even more disturbing, Smathers' list not only included the customer account screen names, but their zip codes, telephone numbers and credit card types.

All the criminals have been caught and are naturally facing tons of jail time and fines. Meanwhile, America Online claims that despite this data theft, actual credit card numbers and passwords remained safe.

That's small comfort to all the affected members who have to ponder if AOL can stand by their promise that such internal security breaches are a one-time thing.

As it is, one time was once too many.