Facebook spammer sentenced to 2 1/2 years in prison

[Harold Mansfield]

SAN JOSE, Calif. — Federal prosecutors say a Las Vegas man has been sentenced to 2½ years in prison for sending more than 27 million spam messages to Facebook users and disobeying a court order not to access Facebook.
Federal prosecutors say Tuesday a federal judge in San Jose, California on Monday also ordered 47-year-old Sanford Wallace to pay $310,000 in restitution.
Last year Wallace admitted to accessing about 500,000 Facebook accounts and sending unsolicited ads disguised as friend posts over a three-month span.
Prosecutors say Wallace collected Facebook user account information by sending “phishing” messages that tricked users of the social networking site into providing their passwords.
According to the indictment, he then used that information to log into their accounts and post spam messages on their friends’ Facebook walls.

Las Vegas man lands prison time for sending Facebook users millions of spam messages | Las Vegas Review-Journal (http://www.reviewjournal.com/crime/las-vegas-man-lands-prison-time-sending-facebook-users-millions-spam-messages)

From The Verge:
'Spam King' who sent 27 million Facebook messages gets 30 months in jail | The Verge (http://www.theverge.com/2016/6/16/11952266/sanford-wallace-spam-king-jail-sentence)

I say good riddance you dirty, rotten plague on the internet.

[KristineS]

I'm glad to see some of these people facing a penalty. Spam causes so many problems for people who want to legitimately use the platforms under the existing rules.

[vangogh]

Good riddance is right. Hopefully this deters him from spamming again when he's out and it deters others from doing the same, but sadly I doubt either will happen.

[Harold Mansfield]

This is the second time he's been caught. What I'd like to see is the people who hire him or payout based on his performance also get charged.Spammers are usually doing it for a reason and that reason is usually money. Someone is buying, paying for, or otherwise benefiting from the results of what he is doing.

[KristineS]

This is the second time he's been caught. What I'd like to see is the people who hire him or payout based on his performance also get charged.Spammers are usually doing it for a reason and that reason is usually money. Someone is buying, paying for, or otherwise benefiting from the results of what he is doing.

Absolutely true, Harold, and a good point. Someone besides him is benefiting from what he's doing. They should be penalized too. If enough people get caught and have to pay up, either in jail time or monetary penalties, maybe they'll stop doing this sort of thing. It's unlikely, but a girl can dream. ;)

[Harold Mansfield]

He was also ordered to attend psychiatric counseling. I'm wondering if he's nuts. It seems strange that a spammer would operate within our borders. Most of the big ones who can pull of these kinds of numbers are over seas and out of the reach of U.S. Laws.