Spam King Sanford Wallace Finally Hit With $4M Penalty
Roy Mark writes on internetnews.com:
Justice was finally downloaded Thursday on Sanford Wallace, a notorious spammer of the 1990s who moved on to illegal spyware operations that installed adware, spyware and other unsolicited software programs on users' computers.
A New Hampshire federal district court ordered Wallace and his company, Smartbot.Net, to pay more than $4 million in restitution, and it permanently barred Wallace from downloading any software to consumers 'computer without the users' consent.
Wallace was at the center of the Federal Trade Commission's (FTC) first spyware case in October 2004.
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MySpace Wants to Bar 'Spam King' Sanford Wallace
Joris Evers writes on C|Net News:
MySpace.com on Tuesday said it has filed suit against Sanford Wallace, seeking to bar the "spam king" and his affiliated companies from the social-networking site.
In the suit, filed Friday in U.S. District Court for the Central District of California in Los Angeles, MySpace accuses Wallace of violating state and federal laws including the federal Can-Spam Act and California's antispam and antiphishing statutes, the company said in a statement.
MySpace charges that Wallace launched a phishing scam in October to fraudulently access MySpace profiles. He also allegedly created profiles, groups and forums on MySpace, spammed thousands of users with unwanted advertisements and lured MySpace users to his Web sites, according to the complaint.
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'Spam King' Sanford Wallace Could Face Criminal Charges in Facebook Case
Elinor Mills writes on C|Net News:
In a move that could land Sanford Wallace in jail if convicted, a federal judge on Friday referred a lawsuit Facebook filed against the "spam king" to the U.S. Attorney's office for possible criminal proceedings.
A written ruling from Judge Jeremy Fogel in U.S. District in San Jose, Calif., is expected early next week, a court clerk said. The action came at a hearing on a Facebook motion that Wallace be found in criminal contempt for allegedly continuing to send spam on Facebook.
Facebook sued Sanford and two others in February alleging they used phishing sites or other means to fraudulently gain access to Facebook accounts and used them to distribute phishing spam throughout the network.
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Spamford Wallace's MySpace Riches Come Under Attack
Dan Goodin writes on The Register:
Anybody who says crime doesn't pay obviously hasn't talked to Sanford Wallace. In just six months' time, the prolific purveyor of spam and spyware engineered a scam on MySpace that netted at least $555,850, according to court documents filed this week.
The brazen scheme used a combination of malware and social engineering to push MySpace users onto porn- and gambling-related websites under Wallace's control. It began in late 2006, just months after Wallace and business associate Walter Rines settled charges related to spyware by agreeing to pay the Federal Trade Commission just $50,000 combined.
Now the FTC is trying to grow a pair. In a motion underscoring the difficulty of stopping spyware purveyors like Wallace, attorneys from the agency asked the federal judge overseeing the settlement to find the men in contempt for violating the terms of the settlement agreement. The commission seeks an order requiring the men to surrender their profits in the MySpace scheme.
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MySpace Wins Suit Against 'Spam King'
Greg Sandoval writes on the C|Net News Blog:
Sanford Wallace, the so-called spam king, has often been accused of sending annoying messages that are typically ignored by the recipient. Perhaps he considered a series of court orders as something he could blow off.
If he did, he was wrong. MySpace has won a legal judgment against Wallace after he failed numerous times to turn over documents or even to show up for court, according to documents obtained by CNET News.com.
In March of last year, MySpace filed suit alleging that Wallace launched a phishing scam in October 2006 to fraudulently access MySpace profiles. Wallace was also accused of spamming thousands of MySpace users with unwanted advertisements and luring them to his Web sites.
To say Wallace, who could not be reached for comment, failed to mount a vigorous defense would be an understatement.
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MySpace Tells AP It Has Won $234M Spam Judgment
An AP newswire article by Anick Jesdanun, via The Chicago Tribune, reports that:
The popular online hangout MySpace has won a $234 million judgment over junk messages sent to its members in what is believed to be the largest anti-spam award ever, The Associated Press has learned.
A federal judge ruled against two of the Internet's most prominent spam defendants, Sanford Wallace and Walter Rines, after the two failed to show up at a court hearing.
Wallace has earned the nicknames "Spamford" and "spam king" for his past role as head of a company that sent as many as 30 million junk e-mails a day in the 1990s.
"MySpace has zero tolerance for those who attempt to act illegally on our site," said MySpace's chief security officer, Hemanshu Nigam. "We remain committed to punishing those who violate the law and try to harm our members."
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