Facebook awarded $711 mln in anti-spam case

BEIJING, Nov. 2 (Xinhuanet) -- Facebook, the leading online social-networking service, was awarded 711 million U.S. dollars in damages in an anti-spam case by a U.S. judge, media reported Monday.

Sanford Wallace, a self-crowned "Spam King" during his career as an internet marketer, was sued for slipping uninvited into people's accounts to send bogus marketing messages.

Facebook described Sanford as "a notorious internet scam artist who has been involved in various illegal spamming and malware (malicious software) activities since the mid-1990s" in court paperwork.

"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 of the Facebook legal team said in a blog post announcing the ruling.

Wallace, who has filed for bankruptcy protection in U.S. courts, might be able to dodge paying Facebook damages awarded in the civil suit but a criminal case would expose him to the possibility of spending time in jail.

"This is another important victory in our fight against spam. We will continue to pursue damages against other spammers." Sam O'Rourke added.

Facebook filed its civil suit against Wallace and his business partners early this year.

MySpace last year won a 230 million dollar judgment against Wallace and accused collaborators for spreading porn and gambling spam at the News Corp-owned online social networking service.