Facebook scoops $711 million award in Spam King case

by Stevie Smith - Oct 30 2009, 19:00

The coffers of Facebook could potentially soon receive a substantial monetary injection of $711.2 million USD after a court ruled in favour of the leading social networking site in its anti-Spam case against Internet marketer Sanford Wallace (a.k.a. the ‘Spam King’).

The awarded damages mark the end of a case initially brought against Wallace in February of this year when Facebook accused him of hijacking user accounts and using them to spread masses of “phony” Wall posts and unsolicited messages to other Facebook members.

Sadly for site founder Mark Zuckerberg and any other executives rubbing their hands in anticipation of rolling around naked amid a mountain of crisp $100 USD notes, the decision of the U.S. District Court in San Jose is actually unlikely to yield anywhere near $711.2 million USD – not least because Wallace is bankrupt.

“We won another battle in the fight against spam,” trumpeted Facebook via its official blog. “While we don’t expect to receive the vast majority of the award, we hope that this will act as a continued deterrent.”

As for Wallace, Facebook reports he now faces the possibility of being “persecuted for criminal contempt” and a spell behind bars after the judge in the case referred the Internet marketer to the U.S Attorney’s Office.

Oh, and he’s also barred from ever using Facebook again. That’s one more member for MySpace then.

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