MySpace spammers lost $230m lawsuit
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.
Source: Vnunet
Comments(37)
thats a lot of monies
if myspaz isnt going to get any money out of them, what was the point in the expensive court case!?
GOOD! now theyre on the run! no one house them let them sleep in alleys. If anyone sees them shout “spammer!! spammer!!!” and we’ll all come with our pitch forks and torches to run this filth out of our country.
Jerk spammers.
at last…lets hope we see more of this….
I am so glad this made the news. The point of Myspace going to court is to stop these people. We as individual get spammed and there isn’t much we can do about it so I think the corporations are right in doing something for their customer. And they have the money to do what none of us can! Bravo. Spammers should get fined and jail time!
and the problem is: everyone can be a spammer! even me, i can be right here, and say sth off-topic in this thread. But, well, this all leads to one way: Common Sense. We MUST know where we should joke and where not. AND what jokes we do, and to whom…
Spam needs to die, along with all the boners who are involved in it.
These damn interstitial ads need to go by the way too. I wish someone would hurry up and find a way to block those annoying P.O.S. ads. I dont mind banner ads, and targeted google-type ads, but these stupid flash interstitial ads that over my whole browser have got to go.
GET FREE PORN!!! As age verification we must get a $1 authorization on a valid credit card (or just send us some bottle caps or wooden nickles).
http://www.wowomg.com/new/
That’s pretty fuc*ed up!!!
F*CK THOSE SPAMMERS’ IDIOTS!!!
Hey you, f*ck you!
BAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH………………
Admin/Mod please ban #8 for that immature comment, basically spamming up the comments, thanks
well these two are spammers, BUT LOOK AT YOU
Look at post #9
just another spam, so RLS SUE THOSE spammers
a lot people sais to another human he is spammer, but first look at yourself, YOU TELLING ME THAT YOU NEVER SPAM??? yeah right
in next second u will not MAYBE
haha spins! wtf #8
weird
btw they live in my house…jk
If it weren’t for spam my inbox would be empty. At least somebody loves me.
Run Run but keep it coming.
Salute!
#8
immature comment, please, a nice time to be quiet instead of saying sth.
#9
i would not consider you were spamming, but, please, keep that nasty words off.
end of story.
everyone likes to spam once in a while. It can be considered fun. Just don’t exaggerate.
How did they get that 500k from 700k messages?
I don’t understand how someone could have money from those.
Fine? Court Case?
Bang! Bang! Two less spammers in the world.
Mind you, if a camel jockey can hide in a cave and evade thousands of coalition troops and government spies and intelligence gatherers, these guys will have an easy go of hiding.
one bullet.
back of the head.
bang bang.
-Pat Shortt, An Irish Embarassment
so the spam goes through their system to my profile, I get the emails etc. But they get the monetary damages?
Granted I understand they probably will never see any of the money.
wish id of thought of that
get free porn now little children at http://www.freeporn.com
it just makes no sense.
how does this case even act as a deterrent to spammers? ‘if you dare to spam we’ll hit you with a ridiculous fine that NOONE will EVER expect you to pay, and let you run away from court to spam again another day’?
and myspace spent all that money on the legal fees (which presumably was tagged onto the spammers’ fine, which, since they cant pay it, will prolly have to come out of public funds)?
why didnt tom from myspace just hire some hitmen? wouldve saved a ton of money AND ensured they never spammed again AND wouldve made other would-be-spammers think twice.
230 Mio, dayum that’s a lotta paper. I didn’t know they could ak so much money.
@22: because some idiots decided it is illegal to kill spammers, where do they get all stupid ideas from?
I think everyone’s missing the point:
Wallace and Rines sent 735,925 messages and earned over $500,000 in the process
That’s a lot of money! Who clicks and buys ANYTHING from spam? Those are the people who should be shot otherwise spammers would make no money doing this garbage.
So is there a similar act that protects our snail mailboxes from all those unwanted solicitations?
glad I stopped spamming myspace when they were bought out a few years ago, lol.
back then, when tom contacted my friend, they just told him to C&D.
Okay now 230 million is out of control for sending out junk mail…My problem is if myspace was getting the money(even thought we know they are not)would they turn around and give that 230 million to the accounts that was spammed? I don’t see how myspace could even put in the lawsuit, for what did they lose by it? Nothing myspace is free… But hell where can I sign up to spam? Hell $500,000 for just sending out junk mail and links, oh I keep it real…I’d send out them 700,000 spam mail in on night….
myspace sucks, their users deserve the spam and viruses
what is myspace?
seriously i dont understand why ppl still go there.. 60%+ is total bull.
Bands who has their profile pages there with tunes should really start thinking about going elsewhere.
http://virb.com is a much more mature site and better, and there’s tons of other sites.
myspace+news corp should die, now please.
Please forgive me…
http://forum.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=messageboard.viewThread&entryID=34252743&groupID=101725112&adTopicID=10&Mytoken=B5E3966B-38F9-4BBE-BA20A2E255ABBB3A33105161
@ 30 dswforce
seriously though, why should bands go elsewhere? Sure Murdoch is a cuпt but myspace is still the easiest place to find out quickly about bands. And That site you mention is pretty rubbish
@ 7 Joe Force
adblockplus… google it.
There is your answer to block the ads
I think that instead of fighting a global war on terrorism and drugs, the US should put all of its military and intelligence assets towards killing (yes, killing) any and all spammers, foreign or domestic, and all those who profit from their operations and those who support them. Everything would go, including the covert assassinations of foreign citizens. I would pass a carte blanche on it.
Mafia bosses who run spamming operations would get laser guided bombs through the sunroof. Romanian spammers would get shot in the back of the skull. Hackers and virus makers would also be targeted and hunted down with extreme prejudice. Zero tolerance. A single spam email will be an automatic death sentence.
lame act
they should be hanged by their d1ck. then cut down and hang again by their arm. then cut down and hang again by their leg. then cut down and hang again by their
Some spammers make money by just serving the ads and not from people buying the products.
Spam is cool if your making the money to survive.
I like to look at inbox spam to see what methods are being used to compromise the user. Quite interesting.
Wallace knows what I’m talking about.