Sanford Wallace a.k.a “Spamford” is already well-known for his illegal spamming practices from last year when MySpace was awarded $234 million against him. Spamford and business partner Walter Rines infiltrated MySpace, stealing passwords and enticing users to visit websites and buy products in order to generate revenue. MySpace wasn’t Spamford’s only target though, and Facebook also took him to court.

Today that lawsuit looks to have been concluded and Facebook awarded $711.2 million in damages. The case was also in response to Spamford sending mails and posting messages on the site in a similar way to his actions on MySpace. The California court ruled in favor of Facebook and found Wallace guilty of breaking the Can-Spam Act.

Facebook is realistic about actually ever seeing the money, though, with spokesperson Sam O’Rourke stating:

While we don’t expect to quickly collect the full amount, we’ll work hard to get everything we can. We’re confident that today’s ruling will act as a powerful deterrent against those who would abuse Facebook and its users. The ruling is the result of tireless effort by our security and legal teams, which work to find, expose, and prosecute the sources of spam attacks These efforts complement the sophisticated technical systems we continue to develop to limit the impact of these attacks, and where possible, block them altogether.

Wallace’s problems dont stop at finding millions to pay the fines. The judge also ruled he committed criminal contempt and now could face imprisonment. Facebook on the other hand is doing very well out of these spam lawsuits and this is the second massive payout it has been awarded. The first was for the slightly larger amount of $873 million last year from Adam Guerbuez and Atlantic Blue Capital.

Source:

• Geek