Facebook wins a lawsuit against Spam :: Internet Marketing at its Worst

Facebook announced yesterday that it had won a lawsuit and $711 million in damages from internet spammer, Sanford Wallace. The social networking site sued him after he spammed the site and would not stop.

Facebook claimed that Wallace was able to get into users’ accounts and send messages to their friends. He was phishing for information and/or hacked the accounts because he was able to get in to them without permission. When someone’s friend saw a message from their “friend” (who was really Wallace’s “marketing” company) they would open it unsuspecting…

“Wallace willfully violated the statutes in question with blatant disregard for the rights of Facebook users whose accounts were compromised by his conduct,” U.S. District Judge Jeremy Fogel in San Jose wrote in his court order.

Wallace has been sued in the past, by MySpace, another social networking website. In May of last year, MySpace won a judgment of $230 million against him for sending junk mail and messages to its users.

He was also fined by the FTC in 2006 for $4 million due to his use of excessive pop-up ads.

So, basically whenever anyone thinks of the “bad” sides of internet marketing they are thinking about this guy. His scams are so sleazy that even a used car salesman wouldn’t use the same tactics that he does (a subprime mortgage lender, maybe).

I am glad to see that people and companies are taking spammers like this one to court and actually winning cases. It is awfully annoying to be a user of a social networking site and know that your friends’ accounts are being hacked and phished and messages that are coming from them may or may not be real messages.

I wish someone would go after the guy who announces in a popup “Would you like to make $5000 a week….” and then when you hit the “x” at the top of the screen, another popup comes up that asks if you’re sure. That is really annoying and I’m pretty sure that most people wouldn’t fall for such a scheme, but they are annoying anyway.

I know that marketers have to come up with new ways to get your attention, but I feel as though the more IN YOUR FACE they are with the way they market, then the less inclined people will be to actually want to purchase the product, and will actually go out of the way NOT to buy it.

It even happens that way with television ads, in my opinion. The main reason I won’t ever purchase “Head On” is not only because I think it is a weird product with  no real medical value past putting a wet cloth on your own forehead, the ads are so LOUD and annoying that I try to steer clear of anything like that.