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Facebook Spammers Make $20M, Get $100K Fine
jfruh writes "Adscend Media, which has been making up to $20M a year from so-called 'likejacking' spam on Facebook, has reached an agreement with the Attorney General of Washington to stop those activities and pay $100,000 in court costs. Among other nefarious techniques, Adscend would overlay Facebook 'like' buttons with provocative photos to spread links to ads from which Adscend would earn referral fees. Adscend also settled out of court with Facebook for an undisclosed amount."
They were third party advertising network in the case. It was their affiliates who were spamming Facebook. If you blame them, then you should blame Google too, as people using AdSense can also spam Facebook with likejacking.
Banks crash the world economy selling junk loans, get 400 billion.
Comment removed based on user account deletion
I like my 'lock them in their headquarters and set in on fire' plan better.
"one billionty dollars"
I don't understand, how provocative can you be with those tiny "Like" buttons? Maybe enough space to show 1/5th of a nipple? Perhaps they just color it with a skin tone to give people the impression they're looking at a naked button.
They didn't "make" 20 million. They collected 13 million in 2011, minus operating and labor costs, and earned about 2 million overall. So they were hit with a 5% fine.
My AC stalker: " I personally agree with your posts most of the time, but that won't keep me from modding you troll"
Definitive proof that it is better to ask forgiveness than ask permission.
crime pays... like that's not a known fact by now.
Only in america.
I want to know what Facebook's share of the loot was and how Facebook profited from this.
Why does it seem like the small government imposed fine was small intentionally so that the larger part of the penalty could be a settlement with Facebook?
Which in my mind smells like Facebook profiting on their own complaint, which is a pretty sweet deal when you can complain to the government about somebody gaming your system (and hence, depriving you of a cut) and then get the government to basically recover your lost profits for you.
First, the obvious reason: as we've seen over and over and over again, spammers can make huge sums of money and then settle up pre-trial for a fraction of it. Then they can dissolve the company, move somewhere else, reincorporate, and use both the capital acquired and the lessons learned to try their hand at something even more abusive. The classic example of this is Sanford Wallace, but he's not the only one.
Second, the non-obvious reason: Facebook are spammers. But we don't see any AG going after them, because they're big and powerful, and they've wrapped themselves in the cloak of corporate respectability.
"...and, for the rest of your days, you shall feel the shame of not being able to afford the Gulfstream G6, and have to settle for an older G4. May God have mercy on your soul."
It's unfortunate that so many of my peers seem to blindly allow any kind of Facebook script/application run even if it requires the ability to post under your name, spreading spam like this. I have to admit I've clicked on a few of these links sometimes, those along the lines of "biggest boobs ever! Must watch" out of curiosity, only to be redirected to a malicious app at which point I just left the page.
The same goes for these new, legitimate news readers that tell which articles your friends read on Guardian for example, and clicking on the link leads to an app requesting permission to spy on me. No thanks, I'll just Google the damn title of the article if it's that hard to give me a direct link, ffs.
There's a whole industry out there spamming "social". At the top are the advertisers who want results and don't ask too many questions. Below them are the SEO firms, advertising things like "Guaranteed first page listings or your money back". Below them are the businesses that sell "bulk Likes", "+1"s, and fake reviews.
But that's not the bottom of the swamp. The people generating fake social rankings need services to help them. So there are outfits which sell fake Google, Facebook, and Yelp accounts in bulk. Software companies which sell tools for creating fake accounts in bulk. ("250,000 +1 votes per day on a fast connection" ) Outsourcing firms which create fake accounts. These operations tend not to advertise openly, but can be found on "black hat" SEO forums.
They, in turn, need support services. They need fake IP addresses and fake phone numbers for verification calls. There are services to provide those. You can rent phone numbers in bulk for 20 minutes. Bulk IP addresses, needed for bulk fake account creation, come from proxies, many of which come from malware on compromised machines. This is down at the organized crime level.
See our paper "Social is bad for search, and search is bad for social" for the gory details.
This all started in late 2010, when Google started feeding "local" social data into web search results. There had been social spamming before that, but it was a minor business. Once Google went "social", social spamming took off. Now, social spamming is mainstream SEO. It's cheaper than running a link farm. It's also safer. There's seldom any retaliation from the search engines for social spamming. Even if they detect a fake social account, they can't tie it back to the source. With link farms, the whole farm can be banned, which can shut down a SEO firm.
And for this you shall pay... *pinky to the mouth* ... ONE HUNDRED THOUSAND DOLLARS! Mwa-ha-ha-ha-ha!
Seriously, most of this lawsuits are not even "wristslapped", it's somewhere about "sternly talked to".
Sounds like a minor service charge in the cost of doing business. The Govt. seems to be acting like a mafia racket where they don't want to thwart this activity, they just want a slice of the pie.
and/or distribute Be treawted by your influence, the
"Idiots" buy triple A rated investment instruments, find out too late they were lied to, world economy crashes.
So when did legal fines turn into taxes on illegal operations.
Troll is not a replacement for I disagree.
How much they've put out in political contributions to the right palms?
...that Facebook is already past its prime? I'm getting a serious AOL flashback every time I read something like this, that it's teenyboppers and grandmas who are affected, most other demographics have already moved on to Google+ and the like.
Like on Brewster's Millions, they spent $20 million in 20 days, but only rented everything. The scoundrels did some accounting after a last minute furniture deposit snafu and found the $100k. It was all the government could take!! Now for the real prize....the $200,000,000 windfall from Uncle Rupert!!
charnel House. inventing Excuses
I'll sell mine for $1M.
To watch (constitution fucking facebook fascists and their stupid users) getting fucked by market exploitation terrorists, all under the corrupt eye of the domestic terrorists at the doj.
I expect next to hear about how baseball bat manufacturers get sued because their 24" bat won't fit up people they are fucking's ass.
Na, they wouldn't let that story get out.
Instead it will be spamming facebook is a felony next. Just watch.
Shit. I need to incorporate now, find something crazy illegal, do it well and set aside $100k for when I am found out.
If they made $20M and were found guilty of Doing It Wrong, shouldn't they have to pay $20M?