# You don't have to be evil to work for AOL... **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [June 23, 2004, 11:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-dont-have-to-be-evil-to-work-for-aol/251904 "2004-06-23T23:49:25Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 10\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Mr.Blue\_Sky](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d26b3c/32.png) [@Mr.Blue\_Sky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Blue_Sky)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2004, 11:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-dont-have-to-be-evil-to-work-for-aol/251904/1 "2004-06-23T23:49:25Z")
…but it helps. [AOL engineer sells 92,000,000 screennames to spammer](http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=562&u=/ap/20040623/ap_on_hi_te/aol_spamming_1&printer=1) Yep, you read that right, 92 MILLION. ---
**Author:** ![Revtim](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/revtim/32/1042_2.png) [@Revtim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Revtim)\ **Post date:** [June 24, 2004, 12:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-dont-have-to-be-evil-to-work-for-aol/251904/2 "2004-06-24T00:31:30Z")
I wonder how much they paid him for the list. ---
**Author:** ![susan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/susan/32/17537_2.png) [@susan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/susan)\ **Post date:** [June 24, 2004, 12:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-dont-have-to-be-evil-to-work-for-aol/251904/3 "2004-06-24T00:32:50Z")
Now that they’ve canned my sibling, I can despise them with impunity. ---
**Author:** ![flamingbananas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/f4b2a3/32.png) [@flamingbananas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/flamingbananas)\ **Post date:** [June 24, 2004, 12:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-dont-have-to-be-evil-to-work-for-aol/251904/4 "2004-06-24T00:47:09Z")
:eek: I COULD BE ON THAT LIST! DAMN YOU AOL! ---
**Author:** ![MysteryFellow63427](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/a88e4f/32.png) [@MysteryFellow63427](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MysteryFellow63427)\ **Post date:** [June 24, 2004, 12:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-dont-have-to-be-evil-to-work-for-aol/251904/5 "2004-06-24T00:50:08Z")
Normally, I believe the death penalty shouldn’t apply to non-capital offenses… but in this case I’ll make an exception. ---
**Author:** ![Mr.Blue\_Sky](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d26b3c/32.png) [@Mr.Blue\_Sky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Blue_Sky)\ **Post date:** [June 24, 2004, 2:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-dont-have-to-be-evil-to-work-for-aol/251904/6 "2004-06-24T02:39:11Z")
> [@Revtim](#): > > I wonder how much they paid him for the list. According to CNN: > [@](#): > > Dunaway, of Las Vegas, NV., was accused of using the list to promote his own Internet gambling business and also sold the list to other spammers for $52,000, according to David Kelley, the U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York. ---
**Author:** ![Morgyn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/morgyn/32/3041_2.png) [@Morgyn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Morgyn)\ **Post date:** [June 24, 2004, 3:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-dont-have-to-be-evil-to-work-for-aol/251904/7 "2004-06-24T03:38:02Z")
Wow. Words really are cheap. He sold out for _rips out calculator_ $0.00056 per name. I’m so happy I never fell into the AOL trap, even though it meant I didn’t get to join the SDMB until it moved to the **real** Internet. ---
**Author:** ![Otto](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/bbe5ce/32.png) [@Otto](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Otto)\ **Post date:** [June 24, 2004, 5:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-dont-have-to-be-evil-to-work-for-aol/251904/8 "2004-06-24T05:17:17Z")
Looking forward to hearing about the prosecutions of the spammers for receiving stolen property. 92 million counts each of receiving stolen property. ---
**Author:** ![Ludovic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7ab992/32.png) [@Ludovic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ludovic)\ **Post date:** [June 24, 2004, 3:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-dont-have-to-be-evil-to-work-for-aol/251904/9 "2004-06-24T15:11:53Z")
> [@Morgyn](#): > > I’m so happy I never fell into the AOL trap, even though it meant I didn’t get to join the SDMB until it moved to the **real** Internet. Because after all, you can’t do TCP/IP when you’ve dialed up to AOL. ---
**Author:** ![Morgyn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/morgyn/32/3041_2.png) [@Morgyn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Morgyn)\ **Post date:** [June 24, 2004, 3:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-dont-have-to-be-evil-to-work-for-aol/251904/10 "2004-06-24T15:58:13Z")
> [@Ludovic](#): > > Because after all, you can’t do TCP/IP when you’ve dialed up to AOL. 😕 All I meant was that I couldn’t get to the SDMB when it was on AOL, because I wasn’t on AOL. And that was because I had already been on the 'net for years before AOL put in an appearance, so I didn’t feel a need to join it.