Facebook Wins $711m Judgment Against Spammer Who Hacked Site

November 2, 2009 11:50 a.m. EST

San Francisco, CA (AHN) - Social networking site Facebook has been awarded $711 million in damages against junk mail merchant, Sanford "Spamford" Wallace. Wallace gained access to numerous accounts on the social Website and sent phony messages to member's friend lists.

Facebook counsel Sam O'Rourke says, "While we don't expect to receive the vast majority of the award, we hope that this will act as a continued deterrent against these criminals."

Wallace and two co-conspirators who also serve as business associates hacked into Facebook accounts using phishing emails. They then bombarded users with mail messages and wall posts on user's friends pages promoting pornographic and gambling sites.

The widely popular Facebook site was seeking more than $7 billion in damages and said Wallace was responsible for 14,214,753 violations of the CAN-SPAM Act. United States District Judge Jeremy Fogel in San Jose, California, however, ruled that he felt the amount was disproportionate to Wallace's offenses. Fogel instead lowered the damages to $710,737,650.

The judgment is being called the second largest in history for an action brought under the U.S. Can-Spam Act. Facebook also netted the largest too. In 2008, the site won a $873 million won against Canadian spammer Adam Guerbuez.