Facebook has been awarded damages of $711 million against Sanford Wallace, who spammed the social network with fake messages. Wallace was sued in February, alongside Adam Arzoomanian, for obtaining login details for accounts and using them to send links to phishing or commercial sites that paid spammers for referrals.The U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California came up with the $711 million figure by issuing $50 per violation of the CAN-SPAM Act - of which there would be approximately 1.4 million.
According to the company blog, Facebook "doesn't expect to receive the vast majority of the award" however, they are hoping that a separate criminal action will send him to jail.
In addition to the damages, Wallace has also been referred for prosecution for criminal contempt of court by Judge Jeremy Fogel.
This isn't the first time Wallace has been fined for spamming. He was found guilty of violating the CAN-SPAM act in May 2008. That time he was ordered to pay $230 million for spamming and phishing on MySpace. He was also fined $4 million by the FTC in 2006 and has had many other lawsuits filed against him in between.
Thanks to lee26 for the news tip.
You know I'm legit because I'm on your Facebook.
You know I'm legit because I'm on your Facebook.
Sad part is that there are still people out there who give these jackass's money. every years millions are scammed
LOL, I think the $711M charge is enough for him. I can gladly let him use a computer.
Yah, but, he has had multiple court cases before, and his multimillion dollar fine didn't stop him then obviously.
But I do want to see what he looks like.
In a way this almost forces him into a life of continued crime (to avoid wage garnishment for instance). Then he better have someone he trusts a lot to put all his assets in their name to keep them from being seized. Any way you look at it, they can make his life unhappy which I'm sure is the point to thrwart current and future spammers and make an example of him.
2004: Warned about distributing scareware
2004: Fined $5 Million for distributing scareware
2006: Fined $230 million for abusing MySpace in the name of space
2009: Fined $700 million for doing the same to facebook
This guy had over a quarter of a billion dollars to pay BEFORE this ruling, what makes anyone thing he'll stop now?
2004: Warned about distributing scareware
2004: Fined $5 Million for distributing scareware
2006: Fined $230 million for abusing MySpace in the name of space
2009: Fined $700 million for doing the same to facebook
This guy had over a quarter of a billion dollars to pay BEFORE this ruling, what makes anyone thing he'll stop now?
You haven't even begin to touch the trouble Spamford has caused...
Spamford has been around since the mid 90's doing this kind of crap.
http://www.ecofuture.org/jmcyberp.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sanford_Wallace
. Wallace was also hit with a nice $4 million fine from the FTC in 2006 and has faced numerous other suits in between.
$4 million fine
$230 million fine
$711 million fine
Wow, what an effective system!
True, but he should have trouble getting a loan or a credit card in the future. :-p Or perhaps even a job.
lol
from how i read this he broke a law yes, but he wasnt officially "charged" with the crime.
Untill he does hes free to go D:
is take everything he own from him including his clothes that he wear currently loolz
and make him right in a board "i wont spam again" for the next 20 years
now that is a real punishment hahahaha
They are in the same category as the people who get emails supposedly from their bank asking them to enter all the personal details and bank logon information into a website that clearly doesn't belong to the bank. Some people are just stupid enough to fall for it.
He didn't say that?
Thanks Minimoose. You are correct, I didn't say that. I said the people who were connected are not ENTIRELY blameless.
My maths isn't great, so forgive me... but doesn't 1.4m times $50 come to $70m, not $711m?
plus intrest/taxes
Seriously though, that brings up a good point. I wonder if it's $500 per incident or 11.4 million violations. There's a misplaced deimal point somewhere!
In fact, it is a bit trivial to hide your identity on the net, let's say, you (anonymous) can rent a server in russia or china, then send spam through here.
Um so basically the fines haven't affected him. Why not just try jail time,10-15 years might work.
As a bonus, we all get to throw a can of spam at him.
And we thought they made all their money from ads...
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