MySpace Wins $230 Million Judgment Against Sanford Wallace

smooth wombat writes "Apparently some people just don't take the hint. The latest story in the Sanford Wallace spamming saga is a $230 million verdict against Wallace and his partner, Walter Rines, when they failed to show up in court. Wallace and Rines were accused by MySpace of creating their own accounts and taking over other accounts through phishing scams, and then using those accounts to send out bogus emails to other members. The emails sent would indicate a video or web site but when people would go to the link, the two would make money through the number of hits generated or they would try to sell something such as ring tones. According to MySpace, the pair sent over 730,000 emails to members which resulted in bandwidth and delivery-related costs as well as complaints from hundreds of members. The 2003 CAN-SPAM Act allows MySpace to collect $100 per violation or triple that amount when the spam is sent 'willfully and knowingly.'"

Comments

Criminal investigation?

[Tweekster]

Why didn't they force the FBI to nail them on computer crimes relating to fraud and unauthorized access.

You or me wouldn't be able to pressure the FBI to do that, but Myspace and Fox are big enough.

Throw them into federal prison for a few years and maybe they will stop.

Re:Couple of items

[somersault]

3 "The 2003 CAN-SPAM Act allows MySpace to collect $100 per violation". Doesn't sound like MySpace have much incentive to make things more secure either, does it? :s