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Myspace gets U.S. spammers and judge fines them $230 million

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A couple of internet spammers who sent messages to people supposedly from their friends made thousands every time someone clicked on their ads.

Apparently they made near $500,000 but the judge decided to implement $300 for each infringement brining their total fine to over $300 million.

Now they've just got to catch the other million spammers out there!

''A team of notorious American internet spammers has been fined a record $230m for bombarding MySpace users with adverts for pornography and gambling websites.

"Spam king" Sanford Wallace, along with his business partner Walter Rines, were yesterday ordered to pay unprecedented damages to the social networking website – amounting to the strongest punishment ever handed out to a spammer in the US.

A court in Los Angeles heard how Wallace and Rines sent more than 700,000 messages to MySpace users, fooling them into visiting gambling sites or adult-rated pages. Disguised as comments from the user's friends, the notes in fact contained advertisements that made the pair a small fee every time somebody was fooled into clicking on them.

Although evidence suggested that the pair made around $500,000 from their activities, district judge Audrey Collins used the terms of America's CAN-SPAM Act – which can levy up to $300 for each infringement of the law.''

Source: Guardian UK
StrangeConversation

12 responses // Myspace gets U.S. spammers and judge fines them $230 million

  • http://www.spidersparlor.com/spammer.gif
    Image...
    Spam on Myspace was it's biggest downfall in my opinion. It's still a really cool place for music networking, but if I wanna chat to my mates I'll use Facebook, cleaner design, with less ads.

    Although it's a good step prosecuting 'spammers' is this really gonna have a knock on effect on the rest of them?
    mattbrawn
  • http://giftcards.giftcertificates.com/images/en_US/loca...
    Image...
    But will they pay the fines with free $500 Macy's gift cards?
    Scott_Bromley
  • How many fake viagra pills one has to sell in order to reach $300 million?
    currenton
  • Hopefully this will make a good example of them, and then spamming will go down. I agree with Scott, though, they should definitely be allowed to pay using their free Macy's gift cards. I would even say it's cool for them to pay using any free iPods they've obtained over the last five years, too.
    ultravphunter
  • watch this comment being used here, here, here, here, here and here
    It's about time, but I don't think it will stop!
    realitybytes
  • I honestly can'tunderatnd why anybody'd want to bother doing that.
    Joey_against_149
  • Spammers ruin everything!
    Im glad they got punished.
    Ice_cream_Man
  • This is a sound victory indeed, but with that much money, will myspace see every penny?
    dmass5
  • Yay. Screw those spammers.

    And yes, I certainly wouldn't want to go about spamming people and taking their money if I knew that I would be slapped with a 300 mill. fine.
    killer_shatner
  • I hate spam. Both kinds.
    abbym0308
  • I wonder how many brilliant minds, minds that could cure cancer, create safe fuel systems, and other neat things, are wasting their time spamming people.

    Although, at $500,000 it doesn't seem like too much of a waste of spam.
    AceHardchester
  • I really wish that somone would develop and easy way to find out these spammers real e-mails then maybe we could all go after them..

    Turnabout is fair play, right?
    PatrickEdwardMurray

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