Busted AOL Spammer Sentenced to 30 Months in Prison

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Busted AOL Spammer Sentenced to 30 Months in Prison

by Tim Stevens, posted Jul 17th 2008 at 7:14AM

Got spam? Yeah, we do too. Oodles and oodles of it each day. Spammers are everywhere, and every now and again, the government nabs one (or two) and sends them to prison for their offenses. The latest feel-good story of that sort comes courtesy of 22-year-old Adam Vitale, who yeserday was sentenced to 30 months in prison for his part in a scheme to send messages to 1.2-million AOL subscribers.

In a sting operation, both Vitale and his accomplice Todd Moeller were arrested after sending out spams on behalf of government agents. In addition to the prison time, Vitale will also have to pay $180,000 directly to AOL in damages, and has pledged that he's "learned a lesson" -- something he apparently didn't do after any of his previous convictions (or the time he was caught running a prostitution ring on Craigslist but never charged). [Source: Reuters]

(Disclosure: Switched.com is owned and operated by AOL)

Filed under: Computers

Tags: aol, craigslist, crime, security, spam, spammers

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