In a Californian court this week, Sanford Wallace, otherwise known as the ‘Spam King’ or ‘Spamford’ was ordered to pay $711 million in damages to the social networking site Facebook.
In a Californian court this week, Sanford Wallace, otherwise known as the ‘Spam King’ or ‘Spamford’ was ordered to pay $711 million in damages to the social networking site Facebook.
Wallace was accused of accessing user accounts and posting fake messages and wall posts. The win came as an important victory against the global fight against spam.
Following the win, Facebook posted this on their blog: “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 is no stranger to the court-room. In May 2008, MySpace were awarded $230 million in a case against Wallace and his partner Walter Rines for sending unsolicited messages to its members. And in 2006, Wallace had a $4 million fine brought against him after the FTC accused him of infecting computers with spyware.
While this is good news for Facebook and its users, it’s little consolation for the rest of us who use email on a daily basis. September 2009 saw an increase of spam from the same month last year to 86% of all email (versus 78 percent of all email in September 2008).
To combat this increasing rate of unwanted email, eTailor offer an effective solution to combating the problem on a server level. Visit the advanced email services page for more info on SpamControl.