MySpace spammers fined $230m

Hypnotize 05-14-2008

MySpace has won its legal challenge against two individuals who bombarded its members with spam.

Sanford Wallace and Walter Rines were fined a whopping $230m for the spam attacks.

However, MySpace is unlikely to see the money since the pair failed to turn up in court and have gone missing.

"The judgement against the spammers is astronomical because each spam message entitles MySpace to $100 in damages under the terms of the Can-Spam Act," said Graham Cluley, senior technology consultant at Sophos.

"In the war against spam it is right that large companies should have a heavy stick like this to hit the spammers with. But these two are just the tip of the iceberg.

"Even if MySpace were to extricate the fine from these two men, which seems unlikely given their past record, there will be plenty more cyber-criminals trying to make money from junk email."

According to court records, Wallace and Rines sent 735,925 messages and earned over $500,000 in the process. Some emails contained links to pornographic sites that were sent to children, causing a storm of complaints.

Wallace already has an outstanding $4m fine from the Federal Trade Commission after losing a case over the installation of spyware on users' computers.

hugo281

Oh man so myspace still got shafted in the end, but daaaaaammnn those spammers made all that money just by sending junk email!!! well for that dude Wallace's sake he better hope they don't find him after owing all that money to the Trade Commission

Dream

that's pretty funny. Myspace causes so much damn spam anyway. You know they only did anything because it ws cuttin into their profit.

hugo281

yeah you right Dream, yeah all that spam is why I had to keep my account on myspace private, I kept getting a bunch of spam that I didn't want lol

Stephyi

Haha,hey whatever it's Myspace I seriously couldn't care about spam. I haven't even gotten any spam in over a year.

hugo281

That's cool Stephy, but me I like myspace I have nothing against myspace, its spam that trips me out, when I first got my account for myspace I had all kinda of emails, friend requests, and even IM's that were spam related but ever since I've set my profile to private I haven't gotten any spam at all but other than that myspace is cool

spawnschickishot

i still get spam lol but i just erase it like those new apps thingys about being someones pet?? i think its just a way to steal info and stuff but i dunno i think myspace should have paid the users somewhow lmfao for all the spam!! damn im thinkin i should be a spammer tooo

hugo281

Right!!! yeah hearing how 2 spammers made all that money kinda makes you want to become a spammer too, and yeah I get those "I just bought as a pet" comments and emails I replied to one saying well if you bought me as a pet then I'm gonna start rebellin by shytting all over your carpet or floor so you can put me outside

Raven

Spaming can make you tons of money in a very short amount of time. Myspace is nothing but spam, most comments are just the same old crap someone saw on someone else's page.

Nina

There's a reason why people spam, becuase it works, it always had work and most likely always will until we remove internet access from idiots.

Hsoolien

Spam does exist because it works, much like telemarketing, do you really think they'd pay all this people to sit around calling if didn't actually make sales?
I get Spam friend requests on MySpace, but that's it, and they are easy enough to filter.

hugo281

Yeah I know, spam is everywhere but thank goodness for Spam-Blocker so I can use it to Cock-Block those spam emails and all that junk

Hsoolien

They just find newer ways, there is a lot of money in making those types of services available to businesses.

hugo281

yeah I know but as long as spam-blocker still works for a long while its all good.