AOL Sweeps Tied To Goods Seized From Spammer

America Online thanked members for reporting spam— warned potential spammers— a sweepstakes that awarded property seized from a spammer as prizes.

The AOL Spammer’s Gold Sweepstakes wrapped up Friday and awarded a grand prize of about $85,000 worth of gold bars and cash, and a fully-loaded 2003 Hummer H2 that the Internet service provider received from spammer Brad Bournival in the first lawsuit it has filed under the federal CAN-SPAM Act of 2003.

AOL said it chose to turn its reward into a sweepstakes because of the number of members that reported the New Hampshire-based spammer. On one day alone in January 2005, more than 100,000 customers used the “report spam” button to complain about messages from Bournival. AOL did not say how many members entered, or how many total entries were received.

Consumers entered the sweeps, which began Aug. 10, online at Aolhummer.onlinepromo.com. Each day throughout the promotion period, participants earned one additional entry in the grand prize drawing and one entry in the daily cash drawing of $1,000 by returning to the site to answer a rotating question on security and safety issues. Those who participate throughout the 10-day promotion period will receive an “Official AOL Spam Patrol” certificate.

In addition to the loot used as the grand prize and tens of thousands of dollars worth of high-end computer equipment seized from the spammer, Dulles, VA-based AOL won $13 million in the case against Bournival.

Additionally, AOL said it donated the computer equipment to local public schools and school systems in Northern Virginia.

The company said it has used a multi-pronged approach to fight spam, including software tools, filtering technology, public policy, litigation and enforcement and industry partnerships.

In a separate development, a former AOL employee, 25-year-old Jason Smathers, was sentenced last week to one year and three months in prison for selling the company’s 92 million screen names and e-mail address to spammers, including Bournival. AOL is one of a number of Internet service providers who have cracked down in recent years, both legally and technologically, to fight spam.