A pair of spammers who failed to show up in court to face charges of spewing out masses of junk e-mail to registered members of popular social network MySpace have today been slapped with a record legal penalty that amounts to paying MySpace a total of $234 million USD in damages.
MySpace awarded record damages in Spam case. Image: LuisPerez/Flickr.
According to MySpace, spam specialists Sanford Wallace and Walter Rines sent out around 736,000 spam messages to members of the popular social network, delivering per-hit profit back to the pair, damaging MySpace financially, and leading to hundreds of complaints from affected users.
The network also pointed out that much of the spam e-mail contained links to pornographic Web sites, which it deemed highly inappropriate considering that MySpace is viewed as a veritable haven for teenagers.
In executing their spam plot, the duo reportedly created many MySpace accounts or hijacked already registered accounts by stealing password information. Then, once forcible armed, they promptly went to work dispatching video or Web site-linked e-mail messages to other MySpace members, all of which appeared to come from approved friends.
Building its case against the spammers on per-violation penalty guidelines set down by the ‘US CAN Spam law of 2003,’ MySpace appealed for $157.4 million USD from Mr. Wallace and Mr. Rines, along with a separate $63.4 million USD directly from Mr. Rines.
In her ruling, Los Angeles-based U.S. District Attorney Audrey B. Collins granted MySpace those damages, along with another $3 million USD sought under the same Spam law. She also enforced a further $1.5 million USD through California’s anti-phishing laws and $4.7 million USD for MySpace’s legal fee expenditure.
“We thank the court for serving justice upon defendants Wallace and Rines and we remain committed to punishing those who violate the law and try to harm our members,” commented MySpace chief security officer Hemanshu Nigam. “MySpace has zero tolerance for those who attempt to act illegally on our site.”
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