Summary: Generating traffic to phishing websites is not only illegal, it is extremely annoying for those that get tricked into clicking on the links.
The Vegas Man that calls himself the “Spam King” may not be celebrating his accomplishments anymore. Sanford Wallace pled guilty in a California federal court to fraud and criminal contempt from hacking 500,000 Facebook accounts to spread spam messages.
Wallace will be sentenced December 7 for developing and executing “a plan to fraudulently obtain Facebook users’ login credentials in order to gain access to their accounts and send them unsolicited commercial electronic messages (spam).”
It has been alleged that he sent 27 million spam messages between November 2008 and March 2009 through Facebook Inc.’s servers. Wallace also refers to himself as “Spamford” and “David Frederix.”
Wallace turned himself into the FBI where he was arrested in 2011. In addition to the charges against him, he violated court orders to stay off Facebook by accessing the social network during an airplane trip and then again by creating an account under an alias.
Facebook won a $711 million verdict against him in October 2010. In 2008, MySpace won a $230 million payment from him and an accomplish for violating their Controlling the Assault of Non-Solicited Pornography And Marketing Act of 2003. The spam messages they sent through MySpace are required to have disclosure and opt-out requirements.
The DOJ is represented by Hanley Chew and Susan Frances Knight.
Source: http://www.law360.com/articles/694913
Photo: telegraph.co.uk