Facebook Scores Legal Victory over “Spam King” Case
Social networking giant Facebook has scored another legal victory after the US District Court in San Jose, California on Thursday ordered “Spam King” to pay $711 million in damages over unsolicited mails sent to users webpages.
Sanford Wallace, also know as Spam King, was ordered by the court to pay the social website $711 million for sending unsolicited mails and postings to Facebook users.
The online giant charged Wallace for violating Computer Fraud and Abuse Act, Controlling the Assualt of Nonsolicited Pornography and Marketing Act, and California Anti-Phishing Act, Facebook General Counsel Sam O’Rourke said in an interview.
O’Rourke said that they did not expect the vast amount of damages awarded by the court, adding that the landmark case will be a symbol against criminal activities online.
“We hope that this case will serve as a deterrent against these criminals,” he said.
Aside from the $711 million verdict, Wallace could also face a possible jail term as the US District judge forwarded the case to the US attorneys’ office, which will prosecute the cybercriminal.
With the verdict in place, the general counsel said that they will now continue to pursue other cases against spammers, which continue to damage online communities through bulk mails.
A self-proclaimed “Spam King,” Wallace has been around for quite sometime and has targeted social networking websites with his program that usually damage the entire system of the users.
In 2008, Wallace was ordered by another court to pay social networking website Myspace $230 million. The case was now considered as the largest spam case in history.
The spam messages sent in MySpace was designed by Wallace and Walter Rines to phish user accounts and password in the said website and used the stolen accounts to send out pornographic and gambling websites.
“Obviously, Wallace has proven that most of these spammers will not stop from doing their criminal activities even if they were already convicted by the court,” an analyst said.
The analyst, who refused to be named, asked the government to implement a tighter regulation for this kind of cyber activities.
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