America Online Steps Up Spam Fight By Launching Litigation Offensive Against Spammers
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Company Sues Spammers in Series of Lawsuits Spurred by Member-Reported Junk Email
AOL Alleges Defendants Named in Lawsuits Are Responsible for Sending AOL Members One Billion Spam Emails, Resulting in Over 8 Million Member Spam Complaints

Dulles, VA – April 15, 2003 – America Online, Inc. (NYSE: AOL), as part of its ongoing, comprehensive battle against spammers, today announced a sweeping series of lawsuits against individuals and companies that it alleges have repeatedly sent members high volumes of unwanted junk emails using a variety of evasive means to circumvent AOL’s spam filters.

AOL is filing five separate lawsuits against over a dozen companies and individuals, who the Company alleges are together responsible for sending an estimated one billion spam emails to AOL members and generating over 8 million individual spam complaints from members. The latest lawsuits filed by AOL are the first to leverage the complaints received by AOL from its members who are using the popular “Report Spam” button in AOL 8.0.

The defendants named in these lawsuits are alleged to have sent a variety of offensive and unwanted spam emails including: pornography; male organ growth/enlargement products; mortgage and home refinancing offers; college degrees; steroids; cable TV descrambler products; and software products. The kinds of spammers and the type of spamming named in these lawsuits are exactly representative of what AOL members face on a daily basis.

The methods alleged to have been used by the named defendants in these cases to send spam to AOL members include many of the egregious and fraudulent methods used today by spammers, such as: falsification of email addresses; purposefully and systematically evading spam filters set up by AOL and its members; and pursuing other means of spamming members that are prohibited by AOL’s published “Unsolicited Bulk Email Policy” (see www.aol.com).

Because AOL’s proprietary email network is located in Virginia, these lawsuits were filed in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia in Alexandria.

Sm0ke leaving the ao scene
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Author : Optimo Sm0ke leaving the ao scene Currently i had the chance to speak with sm0ke. He stated that he would be leaving the ao scene after his program known as completion was done. Well completion is done and sm0ke is saying his goodbyes to aol. Sm0ke has contributed alot to the ao programming scene and will be missed by many. His up and.....
GUIDANCE FOR OVERHEAD AND STAFF USERS [Doc]
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FEDERATION – GUIDANCE FOR OVERHEAD AND STAFF USERS
————————————————–
July 23 1995
Introduction
~~~~~~~~~~~~
Hi! – and welcome to Federation. This document is intended to provide
guidance for overhead and staff account holders on AOL who are playing
Federation (referred to as OHs in this document).

As an OH playing Federation you are in a privileged position, because
we do not get paid for your usage. Because you are in a position of
privilege, you have obligations to AOL and the Federation team that paying
players do not.

At the moment, we allow any OH to play Fed, but bear in mind that if your
presence in Fed starts to cause us problems then you will be locked out of
the game, and if we get too many problems with OHs we will simply stop all
OHs from playing.

Kids Only Channel Policies [Doc]
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The following is a summary of AOL’s “Kids Only Channel Policies.” The AAC is obligated to follow these policies at all times. (from “Document Version 2.32”). All items are direct quotes, commentary is in brackets. The original document is 16 pages long. Grammar and spelling are as found in the original document. This document was prepared bu AAC Coord based on policies in effect in July, 1998.

Introduction

AOL developed The the Kids Only Channel Policies (“Policies”) to ensure a uniform consistent set of standards and practices throughout all programming and advertising areas (Rainman or web-based) targeted to kids children 12 and under on America Online, and particularly including through the Kids Only channel. AOL reserves the right to modify these Policies as necessary. Additionally, AOL expects all Partners to abide by the Children’s Advertising Review Board Unit (“CARU”) guidelines for Interactive Electronic Media (see also http://www.bbb.org/advertising/caruguid.html)

Policy PrincipleObjectivesGoals
~Provide a safe, age appropriate environment for kids in a manner appealing to both kids and parents, addressing primary industry and consumer concerns:
~Providing age appropriate content
~Protecting youth privacy, including protection from online predators
~Creating an age-appropriate marketing environment.
~Create a viable programming and business model for youth-targeted areas and partners on AOL.
~Provide a safe, age appropriate environment for kids in a manner appealing to both kids and parents;
~Create a viable programming and business model for youth targeted channels and partners on AOL.

FEDERATION GREETER’S GUIDE [Doc]
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**>> FEDERATION GREETER'S GUIDE 96.09.30 TOS SECTION

HOW TO DEAL WITH TOS PROBLEMS

It's a sad fact that part of your job is to act as a Fed Cop and stop people
from offending against TOS or the Federation Policy. Greeters are the first
line of action when someone starts misbehaving, and, except in very serious
cases or when you are very busy, generally Hosts won't intervene until you
ask them to bump or lock someone.

Please do not be afraid to pass a problem player to a Host to deal with. If
you give someone a TOS warning, and they ignore it, there's usually not much
point giving them another warning - they need to be bumped out of the game as
a wake-up call, or locked out completely.
Fly@AOL Contacts [Doc]
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AOL Germany Astrid Henrich – AOL Germany Technical Producer responsible for Fly@AOL forms production AOL Screen Name: HenrichA German business hours: 49-40-36159-417 Bernhard Horstmann, AOL Germany Chief Technology Manager Screen Name: HorstmannB Germany business hours: 011-49-40-361-59-201 Stefan Krause – AOL Germany Account Manager for Fly@AOL AOL Screen Name: StefanBAG Germany business hours: 011-49-40-361-59-210 Anxie Systems Piotr Zolnierek – Anixe Systems, 3rd-party German developer of Fly@AOL.....
AOL PPP Information [Doc]
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AOL PPP Information PPP Overview Outside the AOL customer base, more than 99% of dial-up users connect to the Internet via PPP. Even though, AOL considers itself a leader in network services, it still rides in the wake of hardware trends set by the ISPs. AOL must adopt its service to synchronous PPP, the greatest common factor of ISDN connection methods. Without this connection facility,.....
Teen Pleads Guilty to Hacking Paris Hilton’s Phone
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A Massachusetts teenager has pleaded guilty to hacking into the cell-phone account of hotel heiress and Hollywood celebrity Paris Hilton, a high-profile stunt by the youngest member of the same hacking group federal investigators say was responsible for a series of electronic break-ins at data giant LexisNexis.

The 17-year-old boy was sentenced to 11 months’ detention at a juvenile facility for a string of crimes that include the online posting of revealing photos and celebrity contact numbers from Hilton’s phone. As an adult, he will then undergo two years of supervised release in which he will be barred from possessing or using any computer, cell phone or other electronic equipment capable of accessing the Internet.

The U.S. Attorney’s Office for Massachusetts and the state district court declined to identify the teen, noting that federal juvenile proceedings and the identity of juvenile defendants are under seal. But a law enforcement official close to the case confirmed that the crimes admitted to by the teen included the hacking of Hilton’s account.

The teen also pleaded guilty to making bomb threats at two high schools and for breaking into a telephone company’s computer system to set up free wireless-phone accounts for friends. He also participated in an attack on data-collection firm LexisNexis Group that exposed personal records of more than 300,000 consumers. Prosecutors said victims of the teen’s actions have suffered about $1 million in damages.

In a series of telephone and online communications between March and June with a washingtonpost.com reporter, the teen acknowledged responsibility for all of the crimes for which he was sentenced.

Washingtonpost.com is not revealing his name because he communicated with the reporter on the condition that he not be identified either directly or through his online alias.

Investigators began focusing on the teen in March 2004 when he sent an expletive-laced e-mail to a high school in Florida threatening to blow it up, according to a statement from prosecutors. The school was closed for two days while a bomb squad, a canine team, the fire department and other emergency officials examined the building.

In August 2004, the teen broke into the internal computer systems of “a major internet service provider” by tricking an employee into opening a virus-infected file he sent as an e-mail attachment. The virus — known as a “Trojan horse” program — allowed the juvenile to use the employee’s computer remotely to access other computers on the ISP’s internal network and gain access to portions of the company’s operational information, prosecutors said.

The teen told washingtonpost.com earlier this year that around that time he broke into the network of Dulles, Va.-based America Online. AOL did not return calls seeking comment.

In January, the teen hacked into the telephone records system of T-Mobile International. He used a security flaw in the company’s Web site that allowed him to reset the password of anyone using a Sidekick, a pricey phone-organizer-camera device that stores videos, photos and other data on T-Mobile’s central computer servers. A month later, the teen would use that flaw to gain access to Hilton’s Sidekick files, according to corroborating information and screen shots he shared with washingtonpost.com.

Later that month, according to prosecutors, an associate of the teen “set up accounts for the juvenile at a company which stores identity information concerning millions of individuals.”

Again, prosecutors declined to name the company targeted in that attack. But according to screen shots provided by the teen — supported by other information from the teen that was verified by a senior federal law enforcement official investigating the case who spoke on condition on anonymity — the company was LexisNexis, which reported in March that hackers had gained access to the personal records of more than 310,000 Americans.

Hackers Run Wild and Free on AOL
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Using a combination of trade tricks and clever programming, hackers have thoroughly compromised security at America Online, potentially exposing the personal information of AOL's 35 million users. The most recent exploit, launched last week, gave a hacker full access to Merlin, AOL's latest customer database application. As a security measure, Merlin runs only on AOL's internal network, but savvy hackers have found a way to.....
AOL security breach exposes personal info
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America Online has confirmed that hackers have illegally compromised an undisclosed number of its member accounts by targeting key company employees with an email virus.   AOL spokesman Rich D'Amato declined to comment on how many accounts were affected or what kind of information was accessed by the perpetrators. He said the perpetrators gained access to the accounts when unsuspecting AOL staff downloaded virus-infected email.....
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