'Spam king' ordered to pay $711 million in damages to Facebook
31 Oct 2009
A US district court in San Jose has awarded Facebook $711 million in damages in a case the social networking web site filed against Sanford Wallace, the self-described 'spam king'.
Judge Jeremy Fogel on Thursday ordered the prolific spammer to pay the damages for accessing user accounts without authorisation and spamming "friends" through messages and "wall" posts, Sam O'Rourke, senior counsel at Facebook, said on the company's blog.
Fogel found that Wallace willfully violated the laws in question with complete disregard for the rights of Facebook and its users whose accounts he compromised by his conduct. Wallace has now been permanently barred from accessing the Facebook website or creating a Facebook account in addition to other restrictions under the judge's order.
Facebook said the order would serve to deter spammers and while it did not expect to receive the vast majority of the award, it hoped the order would serve as a continued deterrent against criminals like Wallace. Facebook's lead counsel for litigation and intellectual property Sam O'Rourke, wrote in a Facebook blog post: "This is another important victory in our fight against spam. We will continue to pursue damages against other spammers."
"In addition to the judgment, he now faces possible jail time," wrote Sam O'Rourke of Facebook's legal team. "This is another important victory in our fight against spam."
Facebook sued Sanford and two others, Adam Arzoomanian and Scott Shaw, in February for using phishing sites or other means to fraudulently gain access to Facebook accounts and using them to coordinate a phising spam across the network.
