Facebook Wins $711 Million Judgement Against Spammer Sanford Wallace

Although they are not likely to ever collect the full amount, Facebook today was awarded a $711 million dollar judgment against “spam king” Sanford Wallace. The San Jose California federal court judge also referred the Wallace case over to the U.S. Attorney’s Office, requesting that he also be prosecuted for criminal contempt. If found guilty, Wallace will be also facing jail time.

This case stems from a March 2009 restraining order against not only Sanford Wallace, but Adam Arzoomanian and Scott Shaw as well, for sending unwanted messages and wall posts to people on Facebook. Wallace reportedly gain unauthorized access to Facebook accounts and proceeded to send phony Wall posts and status updates. In the United States, this violates 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).

This is not Facebook’s first victory against spammers. In November 2008 they were awarded an $873 million judgment made against Adam Guerbuez and Atlantis Blue Capital for sending some pretty sleazy messages to people via Facebook. To date, this is the largest judgment ever for an action brought under CAN-SPAM.

According to Sam O’Rourke of the Facebook legal team:

In addition to our dedicated legal team, Facebook also has security experts and engineers focused on the integrity of the site. We’re continuing to build systems to prevent and respond to spam attacks. Our User Operations team also works around the clock to identify problems and assist people who’ve been affected.

Is your account safe and secure? We of course always recommend you keep your passwords unique, not only for Facebook, but for any account a password is required. You may want to consider using a password encryption program, such as RoboForm.

Now, if only Facebook would be nice, and share what they collect with the people who were spammed….Not likely, but a nice thought