Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

Facebook Awarded $711 Million In Anti-Spam Case

Posted by Soulskill on from the yet-another-spam-king-dethroned dept.

An anonymous reader writes "Facebook is on a never-before-seen legal rampage against high profile internet spammers. Today Facebook was awarded yet another nine-figure settlement, this time for over $700 million. Facebook also has a criminal contempt case on Wallace, which means a high likelihood of prison, a big win for the internet and a milestone in cyber law. 'The record demonstrates that Wallace willfully violated the statutes in question with blatant disregard for the rights of Facebook and the thousands of Facebook users whose accounts were compromised by his conduct,' Jeremy Fogel wrote in his judgment order, which permanently prohibits Wallace from accessing the Facebook Web site or creating a Facebook account, among other restrictions."

15 of 179 comments (clear)

  1. A Time Line of Sanford Wallace by eldavojohn · · Score: 5, Insightful

    What's wrong with this picture?

    2004-10-08 FTC files suit against Wallace to stop infecting computers with spyware that promised to remove the problem for $30.
    2006-03-22 FTC files suit against Wallace--Wallace and co-defendants fined for over $5 million.
    2008-01-26 MySpace awarded $230 million from Wallace in LA.
    2009-10-29 (Yesterday) Facebook awarded $711 million from Wallace.

    If you say seven hundred million and jail time is too much, I say it isn't enough. A warning didn't stop him, five million didn't stop him, two hundred million didn't stop him and I'm sure seven hundred million won't stop him. Throw the book at him and lock him up--this is definition CAN-SPAM Act. And he's a heavy repeat offender, it's not like this guy was blindsided with a surprise ruling. Spam is too kind of a label for this guy, I would hit him for extortion and identity theft on massive scales in addition to CAN-SPAM.

    How he continued to operate with a two hundred million dollar loss a year and a half ago is beyond me. Is he just declaring bankruptcy (like he did back June '09), rolling over and doing it again? Or avoiding states where there's a warrant for his arrest or what?

    --
    My work here is dung.
    1. Re:A Time Line of Sanford Wallace by El+Jynx · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Heh. Nice. But the problem is as old as humanity itself: forbidding is one thing, preventing is quite another. I agree, jailtime is the only way to go for a recidivist like that. And he's just abusing international law and such: just because you go bust in one country doesn't mean you can't have $500m tucked away in another. Until treaties are formed which address these problems - and thankfully, tax havens have come under heavy fire of late - this type of crap is just going to continue.

      What I don't get is why a joker like that - who is obviously intelligent - doesn't just find a legal way to get rich. It can't be that hard.

      --
      A positive attitude may not solve all your problems, but it will annoy enough people to make it well worth the effort.
    2. Re:A Time Line of Sanford Wallace by mysidia · · Score: 5, Insightful

      It can't be that hard.

      Yes, well, it can be that hard. There are lots of intelligent people who aren't and can't be rich, although they want to be.

      More than intelligence is required.

      And apparently, for this guy, he's skilled in getting rich using uncouth methods. It's what he's familiar with, it's what comes easy for him (I suppose)

    3. Re:A Time Line of Sanford Wallace by nametaken · · Score: 4, Interesting

      You notice that there's a billion dollars in risk here?

      Sounds to me like there is considerable incentive to be an epic scale douchebag of the internet. You'd think he'd be a gajillionaire, right?

      Except...

      "As of October 2003, he is working as a DJ in Las Vegas, making weekly appearances at OPM nightclub (name changed to 'Poetry Nightclub' October 5, 2007) in Caesars Palace Forum Shops on the Las Vegas Strip. Wallace performs under the name DJ MasterWeb.[8]"

      "Wallace filed for bankruptcy in June, 2009. On 2009-10-29, a Northern California District Court Judge awarded Facebook $711M in damages.[12]. Although unlikely to collect due to his bankruptcy, the presiding judge in the case also recommended Criminal Contempt charges against Wallace, who may face jail time as a result." -wiki

      So uh, it's not like he's ridonculously wealthy as a result of being a sleezebag? What gives???

  2. Idea! by gcnaddict · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Facebook should just use this as their business model.

    I mean hey, if the money ever actually does come in, it's perfectly viable given how often people spam Facebook users.

    --
    Viable Slashdot alternatives: https://pipedot.org/ and http://soylentnews.org/
  3. Good ol' Spamford by willith · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Sweet merciful crap, is Spamford Wallace still around? We were stabbing voodoo dolls with his picture on them more than ten years ago. His C.V. reads like list of things that are wrong with the Internet. If there were ever someone that the world would be a better place without, it's this guy.

  4. Nice by mosb1000 · · Score: 5, Funny

    It's good to see a corporation winning a $700,000,000 against an individual once in a while.

    1. Re:Nice by DurendalMac · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Hey, the little guy isn't always the good guy and the big guy isn't always the bad guy.

  5. Time for the death penalty by JoshuaZ · · Score: 5, Interesting

    There's a certain point where we need to consider the death penalty for this sort of thing. Sure, we normally only use the death penalty for heinous crimes, but from a utilitarian perspective it is quite clear that people like Sanford Wallace are doing far more damage to society. If Wallace is taken out and shot he'll lose about 365*50*24= 438,000 life hours. On the other hand, even a year or two of Wallace's normal behavior causes the rest of society to lose far more time. We should consider a death penalty for serious spammers or possibly a long sentence where he is kept far away from any computer.

    1. Re:Time for the death penalty by AJWM · · Score: 5, Funny

      And an appropriate execution method might be death by ten thousand paper cuts. Or just leave him naked in mosquito country at the start of the season. I mean, it's not like any one cut or bite is that serious....

      --
      -- Alastair
    2. Re:Time for the death penalty by JoshuaZ · · Score: 4, Interesting

      You agreed at some point to buy a Microsoft product. You or someone you are helping opted in. And most likely once you've got it working you will actually have saved time overall. There's no claim that a) people opted in to Wallace's crap or b) that anyone will save time overall from what Wallace is doing.

    3. Re:Time for the death penalty by omnichad · · Score: 4, Funny

      Force him to eat nothing but spam until he dies of malnutrition.

  6. How is Facebook going to distribute... by JBL2 · · Score: 5, Interesting

    ... the money to the users who suffered damage?

  7. Where do I add this new app? by Sebastopol · · Score: 4, Funny

    "Facebook's application for a default judgment against Wallace for violating the Can-Spam Act"

    Cool new app!

    I crack myself up.

    --
    https://www.accountkiller.com/removal-requested
  8. Re:Free Viagra! by mysidia · · Score: 4, Informative

    The CAN-SPAM act ruined it by superceding prior federal law that made sending junk faxes/e-mail subject to a per-message penalty to be paid to the recipient, prior to the act.

    Before then.. individuals did sometimes did sue spammers, I believe it was ~$500/message..