Last Thursday, a San Jose, California court awarded Facebook $711 million in damages against spammer Sanford Wallace. The self-proclaimed “spam king” was found guilty of violating the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act, the California Anti-Phishing Act and the Controlling the Assault of Non-Solicited Pornography and Marketing Act (CAN-SPAM).
Facebook was granted a restraint order against Wallace last March. He is known to have been involved with spamming since the mid-1990s, and is well known for his company Cyber Promotions, an e-mail marketing company that was once the leading source of unsolicited e-mail in the world.
Court documents indicate that Wallace accessed Facebook accounts without first acquiring permission. He spammed users with phishing messages; everyone who clicked on the links and submitted information to the phishing sites were allowing Wallace to then spam their friends. These actions are in contention with the guidelines set by the CAN-Spam Act, which are enforced by the Federal Trade Commission.
U.S. District Judge Jeremy Fogel granted Facebook’s request for a default judgment against Wallace and awarded Facebook $711 million. If convicted, Wallace could also be facing jail time.
“The record demonstrates that Wallace willfully violated the statutes in question with blatant disregard for the rights of Facebook and the thousands of Facebook users whose accounts were compromised by his conduct,” Fogel declared in his ruling.
Facebook is hoping that this ruling will deter people from abusing the site and will help to put spammers out of business.
