Spam King set to lose crown after surrendering to FBI

by Steven Mostyn - Aug 8 2011, 10:37

The global proliferation of online spam has been tempered a little this week following news that notorious Facebook spammer Sanford Wallace has turned himself in to authorities in the United States.

Wallace, who’s known as the ‘Spam King’, has denied accusations that he’s responsible for targeting some 500,000 Facebook accounts and delivering 27 million identity-compromising messages.

According to prosecutors, 43-year-old Wallace created a software program capable of scaling Facebook’s defences and pilfering account details before spreading messages that appeared to be from confirmed friends.

“Wallace continued his spamming scheme by storing the information provided by Facebook users, such as email addresses and passwords,” the prosecution offered. “Wallace then used the user’s email address and password to log into Facebook in order to continue to send spam messages.”

The charges also state that the malicious messages pointed unsuspecting victims to an affiliate website, which resulted in Wallace being granted access to significant amounts of revenue. 

The Spam King could be facing up to 38 years behind bars if found guilty of six counts of electronic mail fraud, three counts of intentional damage to a protected computer, and two counts of criminal contempt.

Wallace is no stranger to legal action where social networks are concerned. In 2009 the courts awarded Facebook $711 million USD in associated damages, while MySpace received a $230 million USD judgement.

Wallace promptly disappeared from view and only resurfaced on Thursday of last week when he surrendered to FBI agents in Las Vegas.

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