NEW YORK: Social networking site Facebook will get $711 mn in compensation, following a favourable US court ruling against a spammer accused of accessing user accounts without permission.
The court has asked the spammer, Sanford Wallace, to pay the amount to compensate damages done to the networking site.
“A San Jose, California court awarded Facebook USD 711 million in damages against Sanford Wallace, one of the spammers who accessed people’s accounts without their permission and phony wall posts and messages,” the networking site said in a blog on on Friday.
Noting that the ruling would act as a continued deterrent against such criminals, Facebook, however, said it does not expect to get much money from Wallace.
“Most notably, the judge referred Wallace to the US Attorney’s Office with a request that Wallace be prosecuted for criminal contempt, which means that in addition to the judgement, he now faces possible jail time,” Facebook noted.
Regarding the ruling, the networking site said it is another important victory in the fight against spam.
Earlier this year, a US court had issued a temporary restraining order against three spammers — Sanford Wallace, Adam Arzoomanian and Scott Shaw — for sending unwanted messages and wall posts to people on Facebook.
In November last year, the networking site had won a court ruling against Adam Guerbuez and Atlantis Blue Capital for sending sleazy messages to people on Facebook, which asked them to shell out USD 873 million.
