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…
The duo failed to turn up at court for the judgment.
And what will the courts do about these slimeballs if they default on the fines?
Well, since you asked, and it is interesting==the courts don’t enforce fines directly. The fine is a property right of My Space who brought the case as the injured party and who requested the fines according to statute.
If spammers don’t pay as the judgment directs, then My Space can go “back to court” to get enforcment/attachment orders and then force the spammers into depositions to find out what assets they have and then play “OJ Tag” trying to grab those assets before they are moved. Dedicated scumbags (no direct reference to OJ) have a slight edge in staying ahead of the levying parties–legitimate businesses cannot withstand a determined lien holder, but scum do all the time.
I imagine MySpace is motivated to make the spammer’s life hell. It will be a contest of wills.
What!
$230 million fine for 700,000+ emails
That works out to approximately a $300 fine for each email.
What is wrong with our judges? They should be taking care of real criminals, not folks who are just pushing some electronic bytes around the internet.
Where and how can I get to JessUsa19? Can anyone help me with that please?
Are these guys even capable of paying 230mil?
what i wanna know is why is myspace getting paid on this one? what about the users that actually were inconvenienced?
What I want to know is why nothing happens when I click the picture.
I want to be inconvenienced.
#2 I hope your joking.
Spammers are real criminals and some days I just want them shot. Because of them I have to have Spam filters and multiple E-mail accounts. Over 90% of the E-Mail going though my Spam filter is Spam and it doesn’t catch everything. They take up a high amount of internet Bandwidth.
FAKE!
I did a search on MySpace and got this…
Sorry we weren’t able to find “JessUsa19” on MySpace.com
I didn’t realize there was anything else on the interwebitubes other than gambling or adult-related pr0n sites.
These spammers are like the mafia, get rid of one and there’s 100 more out there willing to replace him.
#10 – If they can afford to pay that fine, I’ll become a spammer… Fuck all you all’s spam filters… I want’s to get paid 🙂
Jeez, yet another “Spam King”? How many people are claiming that ignominious title? A Google search shows quite a few of them, all being prosecuted.
What could possibly go wrong with your life that makes you want to be called the “Spam King”?
Scumbags. Have fun in jail. Maybe they will be known as the local jailhouse Cram King.
The problem is the idiots who click on spam.
Problem with SPAM is that the OLD OLD style of email hasnt changed. and its EASY to fake it, making tracking IMPOSSIBLE..
Then comes the interesting part, that so MANY people willing allow a computer to be used on the internet, WHICH is like haveing a LOUD speaker from every Advertiser in the world that WANTS YOUR MONEY.
Then comes the 1% rule…I only need 1% (or less with the WORLDs population) HIT the button, they can get a bit of info on you…Just clicking they can tell your IP location and computer name. IF a group cross references abit more data from MORE clicks on MORE items, they can put alot of things together and have FULL info on you…
“And what will the courts do about these slimeballs if they default on the fines?”
This one is easy. Do what I do with OSHA fines. If they can’t put you in jail, wipe your ass with the papers and ignore them.
‘“Spam King” Sanford Wallace,…’
I have an old MaximumPC magazine from January 2003 (“The Appalling Face of Spam” article on page 38) which specifically states that Ronald Scelson of Slidell, Louisiana, the former CEO of Opt-In Marketing, was “The Spam King”.
I guess that congratulations are in order for Mr. Wallace’s claiming of the Spam King crown!
Nice spammers.