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You've got jail! AOL spammer sentenced to seven years

arstechnica.com — AOL spammer and identity thief Michael Dolan is headed off to jail for the next seven years, to be followed by three years of additional monitoring. Dolan and his codefendants pled guilty to all charges, and received the maximum sentence allowed by law.

Who dugg this? Made popular Aug 15, 2008

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  • ileftfark, on 08/14/2008, -2/+89AOL spammer? So he was on the dev team?
  • TelengardC64, on 08/14/2008, -2/+80". . . he managed to bilk at least several hundred people out of $400,000 or more."

    That's not an annoyance, it's a crime. Spammers who break the law should go to jail, just like any other criminal.
  • ShitStainedBall, on 08/15/2008, -1/+50AOL itself is a ***** crime. ***** virus software.
  • asus2000, on 08/14/2008, -12/+55You've got male!
  • nunodomonte, on 08/14/2008, -3/+40"Five years for fraud, two years for aggravated identity theft"

    Do you call this being annoying?
  • RedneckRandy, on 08/15/2008, -1/+27AOL still exists?
  • buckleto, on 08/14/2008, -3/+28Spamming is not simply being annoying. In addition to the $400K these people conned out of the victims, spam in general costs companies millions of dollars a year in costs to filter it and it the performance/bandwidth burden it puts on their equipment. Think of it as stealing millions of dollars and 7years is not too much at all.
  • BDOUG, on 08/15/2008, -1/+22Somebody didn't RTFA.
  • techblogLAT, on 08/15/2008, -1/+19I feel compelled to undigg the dupe with more diggs because this headline is much more awesome.
  • dezweber, on 08/15/2008, -1/+17Yeah, there's more to fraud and theft than "being annoying". Not "just spam".
  • Miamisun, on 08/15/2008, -1/+17Inmates hate Child Molesters, Rapists, and Spammers equally.
  • dvslamont, on 08/15/2008, -1/+17Dugg just for the title
  • oveedrx, on 08/15/2008, -2/+17Best Title I have seen on digg so far
  • roomforpanic, on 08/15/2008, -0/+13He said, HE HAVE TO GO TO JAIL.
  • DreamVsPs2, on 08/15/2008, -2/+15You've got Jail!

    GOODBYE
  • inactive, on 08/15/2008, -1/+12Fines aren't going to deter spammers, especially since the money they make from spamming will usually be greater than the amount of the fine. Jail time, on the other hand, will certainly deter some of those nerdy spamming *****.
  • kingmanic, on 08/15/2008, -0/+11The difference between junk mail/flyers and SPAM is the cost of flyers/junk mail is paid by the sender. The cost of SPAM is paid by the receiver (bandwidth). Just as it's illegal to send junk faxes or telemarketing to a cellphone (receiver pays for paper and minutes), it's illegal to send SPAM. As long as the fines/sentences are similar to junk faxing and cellphone telemarketing then it's about right.
  • inactive, on 08/15/2008, -1/+12that's like saying the enron ***** should only pay money
  • inactive, on 08/15/2008, -5/+15I bet the author was quite pleased with himself when he thought of putting " You've got jail! " in the title.
    I see what he did there.......
  • sladek, on 08/15/2008, -1/+11what?
  • gmiley, on 08/15/2008, -0/+10ACT NOW - MAKE YOUR P3N1S L@RG3R BY GIVING ME THE KEYS!
  • MrChunks, on 08/15/2008, -0/+9Spamming is illegal because it wastes time and resources and costs businesses and people time and money. That you think it's absurd that it's illegal makes me wonder if you're one of the people profiting from spam email.

    A HUGE bury for you, young man.
  • jads, on 08/15/2008, -1/+10When I saw the words 'AOL' and 'Spam' together, I just had visions of hundreds of those damn floppy disks you would seemingly get with everything.
  • YodaJones, on 08/15/2008, -1/+10Dude better buy a big supply of KY with that $400K.
  • thorbergdt, on 08/15/2008, -0/+8priceless...
  • rnawky, on 08/15/2008, -0/+8As soon as you give me your bank account information so I can deposit these funds into your account as I am fleeing my country. Also, take these pills and your penis will become much larger!
  • dsully215, on 08/15/2008, -2/+10Who is dumb enough to use AOL in the first place, much less fall for spam over it
  • vinnyc, on 08/15/2008, -3/+10You've got FAIL!
  • Rikkochet, on 08/15/2008, -0/+7He's being dugg down because he's commenting on an article he clearly didn't read.
  • diggit08, on 08/15/2008, -3/+9This guy was a thief not a spammer.
  • Gee1004, on 08/15/2008, -0/+6I get 10 spam emails a day on Yahoo mail. When are they going to jail?
  • CindyMindy, on 08/15/2008, -0/+6I HAS NO CHOICE!
  • vMsam, on 08/15/2008, -3/+9imagine this guy scams people in jail? LOL

    spammer - "yo bro, if you help me get out of here, ill give you a FREE brand new Playstation 3."

    guard - "REALLY?!"

    spammer - "yeah man! just get me out of here and your social security number..."

  • daliminator, on 08/15/2008, -0/+6enhancement pills make your pen0r stand up three feet in defiance of god's will! easy cheap viagra cialis adgjknh';a; agafh!#
  • DubiousDrewski, on 08/15/2008, -0/+6You don't find the concept of spam harmful? You think it's absurd that it's illegal? You must not receive any of it then.
  • sladek, on 08/15/2008, -1/+7*facepalm*
  • newms32, on 08/15/2008, -3/+9rape is hilarious
  • inactive, on 08/15/2008, -0/+6wow plead guilty and still got the max. That is some fine lawyering there lou
  • Typhoon2009, on 08/15/2008, -2/+7lulz, spammers
    They should all be sent to jail.
  • inactive, on 08/15/2008, -0/+5frisbees
  • Fadakar, on 08/15/2008, -0/+5I know I can't be the only one who read that as "LOL spammer" the first time. My only thoughts were "Aww, *****."
  • ModernDayDarwin, on 08/15/2008, -2/+7You folks do know that "the worldwide web" actually goes....worldwide? Give the guy a brake because he used a little bit of broken English. He probably does a better job overall than most high schoolers.
  • toastybeast, on 08/15/2008, -0/+5dugg for a good title.
  • ariGme, on 08/15/2008, -0/+5You SEE 10 spam a day, you probably receive several hundred that are automatically dropped by Yahoo before they even hit your spam folder.
  • mm3guy, on 08/15/2008, -3/+7Finally, a scammer punished in a method OTHER than death.
  • daliminator, on 08/15/2008, -1/+5Give him a brake? What's he need a brake for?
  • KevinLiu, on 08/15/2008, -0/+4WTF? This is phishing, not spamming. Plus they make him out to be some sort of evil mastermind-- he's nothing more than a script kiddie.
  • inactive, on 08/15/2008, -0/+4Duh his car
  • gmiley, on 08/15/2008, -0/+3I would personally never use AOL myself, but for young children and the elderly, AOL is just fine. Unfortunately, the elderly demographic are usually the ones not tech-savvy enough to spot a lot of these scams. This is why scammers/spammers target AOL users. There is a greater chance that the targeted AOL user is someones grandmother sending an e-mail to her bingo friends or looking up gardening tips rather than a techy or industry professional.
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