Federal Prosecutors Take Aim At Spam King

Earnest Cavalli

New member
Jun 19, 2008
5,352
0
0
Federal Prosecutors Take Aim At Spam King



Self-described "Spam King" Sanford Wallace is staring down four decades of prison time as part of a grand jury indictment on federal fraud charges.

The indictment was handed down on July 6, and alongside the electronic mail fraud allegations, Wallace is also being charged with "three counts of intentional damage to a protected computer and two counts of criminal contempt."

The AP reports:

The indictment filed in San Jose federal court said Wallace compromised about 500,000 Facebook accounts between November 2008 and March 2009 by sending massive amounts of spam through the company's servers on three separate occasions.

Wallace would collect Facebook user account information by sending "phishing" messages that tricked users of the social Relevant Products/Services networking site into providing their passwords, the indictment said.

He would then use that information to log into their accounts and post spam messages on their friends' Facebook walls, the indictment said. Those who clicked on the link, thinking it came from their friend, were redirected to Web sites that paid Wallace for the Internet traffic.

Wallace was sued by Facebook in 2009 for his annoying entrepreneurial efforts, and though a judge issued a restraining order barring Wallace from using the social networking site, the aforementioned contempt of court charges allege that he violated this order almost immediately.

As an interesting aside, the judge in that case issued a $711 million judgment against Wallace, a figure that the AP describes as "one of the largest-ever anti-spam awards."

If you're having trouble grasping exactly how a person gets themselves into this kind of trouble, just know that in the 1990s, when most people still thought "Internet" was a synonym for "AOL chatroom," Wallace's firm, Cyber Promotions, was sending out 30 million spam emails daily.

Since then his enterprise has only grown, and while official figures aren't available, it's widely agreed that Mr. Wallace as done quite well for himself, financially.

If the government's case against him sticks however, Wallace could face up to $2 million in fines and 40 years behind bars.

Source: Enterprise Security [http://www.enterprise-security-today.com/news/Mobile-Apps-Flunk-Security-Test/story.xhtml?story_id=021001ZX35S0]
(Thanks to Mattttherman3 for the tip!)

Permalink
 

Therumancer

Citation Needed
Nov 28, 2007
9,909
0
0
Well if this guy presumably has 711 million dollars, or heck even 2 million dollars, I half expect the guy to be gone to a country without an extradition treaty post-haste unless they have him locked up somewhere, and that doesn't seem to be the case.
 

Kenjitsuka

New member
Sep 10, 2009
3,051
0
0
Fourty years, now THAT is insane.
Here you get like 8 years for bloody murder :O

How so, disproportionate?
 

Rawne1980

New member
Jul 29, 2011
4,144
0
0
If he was in the UK he'd be told very sternly never to do it again and made to paint a school.
 

Dogstile

New member
Jan 17, 2009
5,093
0
0
spectrenihlus said:
Is it too much to hope for the death penalty?
amaranth_dru said:
BrailleOperatic said:
spectrenihlus said:
Is it too much to hope for the death penalty?
That does seem a WEEEEEE bit extreme.
No, I believe this man deserves worse. Castrate the fucker. Then please go after Telemarketers, since they're phone-spam.
That's right, because spam is so damn hard for you to not click on. No sir. Not at all.

Edit:

I wonder how much he actually made in comparison to how much he's being fined.
 

Imperioratorex Caprae

Henchgoat Emperor
May 15, 2010
5,499
0
0
dogstile said:
spectrenihlus said:
Is it too much to hope for the death penalty?
amaranth_dru said:
BrailleOperatic said:
spectrenihlus said:
Is it too much to hope for the death penalty?
That does seem a WEEEEEE bit extreme.
No, I believe this man deserves worse. Castrate the fucker. Then please go after Telemarketers, since they're phone-spam.
That's right, because spam is so damn hard for you to not click on. No sir. Not at all.

Edit:

I wonder how much he actually made in comparison to how much he's being fined.
Its not clicking on it that bothers me (which I don't do) its constantly having to clear out my inbox and report spam. Inconvenient enough to make me demand castration as a punishment.
Just as much as the asswipe who calls at dinnertime wanting me to switch to Sprint when I don't even have a cell phone in general.
 

robert01

New member
Jul 22, 2011
351
0
0
So this guy is proud to have pissed off millions of people probably around the world, and used illegal methods to get their information. The fact that the settlement was for 711 million dollars should scare the shit out of people considering that he probably has that kind of money. One fish killed in a ocean of millions I am afraid.
 

mattttherman3

New member
Dec 16, 2008
3,105
0
0
Herbsk said:
Compared to Bernie Mac - This guy is getting off easy at just 40 years...
Bernie Mack is a dead comedian, I think you mean Bernie Madoff lol


Btw op it is Mattttherman3 for future referance :p
 

Sniper Team 4

New member
Apr 28, 2010
5,433
0
0
I've always wondered why people send out spam. Being annoying jerks can't be the sole reason. Looks like I finally have my answer.
Please throw the book at him. All of those 40 years. And while we're at it, let's take all that money from his company. Sounds like a plan to me.
 

Ghengis John

New member
Dec 16, 2007
2,209
0
0
That picture... it's really him. That makes him all the more annoying. The arrogance of it.

40 years seems like much, but there is some contempt of court in there, so that's the price you pay for arrogance.
 

Earnest Cavalli

New member
Jun 19, 2008
5,352
0
0
mattttherman3 said:
Herbsk said:
Compared to Bernie Mac - This guy is getting off easy at just 40 years...
Bernie Mack is a dead comedian, I think you mean Bernie Madoff lol


Btw op it is Mattttherman3 for future referance :p
Curses! Foiled, once again, by nonsensical 'net handles! Edit'd.
 

Sylocat

Sci-Fi & Shakespeare
Nov 13, 2007
2,122
0
0
Every once in a while, the universe does in fact deal out a slice of karmic justice.

By the way, this guy looks exactly how I pictured him when I first read about the case, before I'd ever seen a pic of him. Sad, isn't it?