Facebook Finally Strikes It Rich -- in Court

BY Chris DannenFri Oct 30, 2009 at 3:07 PM

Three imbeciles who exploited stolen Facebook accounts to send spam were fined $711 million in damages on Thursday, payable to Facebook.

spam

Sanford Wallace, Adam Arzoomanian, and Scott Shaw allegedly stole login credentials for Facebook accounts and used them to propagate a spam and phishing scheme that paid them for their referrals. The three will also face criminal charges (for criminal contempt) and jail time.

Facebook was less than sanguine about the big pay-off, acknowledging that the sum will probably get knocked down upon appeal. But they seem optimistic that the criminal charges will help deter future miscreants: "... [I]n addition to the judgment, [Wallace] now faces possible jail time. This is another important victory in our fight against spam. We will continue to pursue damages against other spammers," the Facebook blog reports.

This is not the first time Wallace will owe a social network; in 2008 he was found guilty of spamming MySpace, and was ordered to pay $230 million.

[Via InfoWorld]

Topics:

Technology, spam, facebook, award, criminal, spammer, court, , Facebook Inc., Computer Security, Computer Technology, Science and Technology, Technology

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Recent Comments | 8 Total

October 30, 2009 at 5:15pm by Richie AutoTweet

A moral victory to be sure. Theft and spamming. What next?

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October 31, 2009 at 1:29pm by Gabriella Sannino

So Basically I am supposed to feel sorry for these idiots? If they really thought they would get hired or become Techno rocks stars... far from it. It's not like this was the first tie Wallace got busted. This should be a warning for all hackers out there. he way I see it, hack something nice and give away love rather than irritate the heck out of people. Here's a free thought maybe they can end world hunger or figure out a way to share the Vatican's wealth? lolol funny stuff.

--
Warm regards
Gabriella
@SEOcopy

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November 2, 2009 at 9:27am by Greg Steggerda

Agree with Gabriella. If they would work half that hard on something beneficial . . .

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November 2, 2009 at 9:40am by David Carr

Should we shut down the internet?

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November 2, 2009 at 9:50am by Kevin Cimring

Although the damages have been awarded, what are the chances of Facebook actually being paid? Although that's not the point of going up against these hackers, the article suggests Facebook will be filling its coffers. Would be interesting to know.

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November 2, 2009 at 12:26pm by Chris Dannen

@Kevin... read deeper. "Facebook was less than sanguine about the big pay-off, acknowledging that the sum will probably get knocked down upon appeal."

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