Who needs venture capital money when you have litigation? Facebook was awarded $711 million in damages Thursday in an anti-spam case against Sanford Wallace, an internet marketer. The popular social networking platform went after Wallace for tapping its users' accounts without their permission and sending fake posts and messages.
Wallace has quite a reputation for spamming, having gained the nicknames "Spam King" and "Spamford" back in the 1990s, when he was good for up to 30 million spam e-mails a day.
The recent tangle with Facebook isn't Spamford's first legal loss in the social networking world. In May 2008, MySpace won a $230 million judgment when it chased Wallace in court, along with his partner, Walter Rines. In 2006, Wallace was fined $4 million by the Federal Trade Commission in that case for violating federal anti-spam (CAN-SPAM) laws for having infected computers with malware.
This time around, the monstrous judgment could be the tip of the iceberg. Facebook has referred Wallace to the U.S. Attorney's office for criminal contempt of court prosecution. Depending on how things turn out, Spamford could face jail time. But, I have my doubts as to whether bars and stripes can keep this spammer from wreaking havoc on the internet.
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