A U.S. District Court judge in San Jose has awarded Facebook $711 million in damages in an anti-spam case the social-networking giant filed against online marketer Sanford Wallace, who is known as the “Spam King.”

The Palo Alto company claimed Wallace and two associates registered as Facebook members in November 2008 to start a spam and phishing scheme.

According to court documents, the firm said Wallace sent numerous Facebook members a link to a Web site that tricked them into revealing their login information. Some messages sent the Facebook user to other sites that paid Wallace for that traffic.

The spammers would repeat the cycle by logging into the compromised accounts and sending more messages, the suit said.

Facebook claimed there were 14 million violations of the federal anti-spam law known as CAN-SPAM. In March 2009, Judge Jeremy Fogel issued a temporary restraining order and then a preliminary injunction against Wallace.

In an order filed Thursday, Fogel said Wallace violated the law “with blatant disregard” for the rights of Facebook and its members. Fogel also wrote that he is referring Wallace, who did not appear in court for scheduled hearings, to the U.S. attorney’s office for criminal contempt charges for violating the restraining order and the injunction.

Fogel rejected Facebook’s request for $7.5 billion in damages.

In November, Facebook won a record $873 million judgment against a Canadian resident accused of sending more than 4 million bogus messages from members’ profiles, many advertising male enhancement drugs.

In 2008, Facebook rival MySpace won a $234 million judgment against Wallace and another Internet marketer, Walter Rines.

Wallace, however, filed for bankruptcy in June.

“While we don’t expect to receive the vast majority of the award, we hope that this will act as a continued deterrent against these criminals,” Sam O’Rourke, the company’s associate general counsel, said in a Facebook message. “This is another important victory in our fight against spam.”

http://www.sfgate.com/

Related Content

• November 26, 2009 -- Mind Your Tweets: The CIA Social Networking Surveillance System
  That social networking sites and applications such as Facebook, Twitter and their competitors can facilitate communication and information s...
• October 6, 2011 -- Happening Now: Occupy Houston Protest Links, Photos, Videos, Interviews and Live Streams
  The Katy Capsule's collection of helpful links, information, photography, videos, interviews and anything else related to Occupy Houston. Oc...
• December 16, 2009 -- Green Light: For Internet Filter Plans
  The Federal Government will introduce compulsory internet filtering to block overseas sites which contain criminal content, including child ...
• December 10, 2009 -- Social Networks: Malaysian Firm Buys Friendster
  Read more about the recent sale ($100 million) of the social networking site Friendster.......
• December 9, 2009 -- Google Wave: Will It Be The Final Death Nail of E-mail?
  Since May of this year, Google Wave has been highly anticipated by the Internet community. It’s Google’s newest project that they are slowly...
• December 9, 2009 -- Gatorade: Drops Tiger Woods Sponsorship
  Soft drink brand Gatorade says it is to drop a Tiger Woods-endorsed product but said it was not related to revelations about the golfer's pr...
• December 4, 2009 -- Guinea: Leader Survives Attack
  (CNN) -- Moussa Dadis Camara, the military leader of the West African nation of Guinea, was shot and wounded in an attack on his presidentia...
• December 4, 2009 -- Egypt: Cave Underworld Under Investigation
  Cairo, December 2nd, 2009 – Egypt’s leading Egyptologist, Dr Zahi Hawass, has revealed that an excavation team under his charge are investig...
• December 3, 2009 -- Tiger Woods: Not The First To Fail With Technology
  Hey, Tiger Woods: Why so dumb about tech? When it comes to digital embarrassment, celebs are apparently just stupid By Helen A.S. Popkin...
• December 3, 2009 -- America: Without a Middle Class
  Can you imagine an America without a strong middle class? If you can, would it still be America as we know it? Today, one in five Americans ...