‘Facebook’ Spamming Cost Man 30 Months Prison Time And $310K

“Facebook” is full of people who spam other people. That is just how the social media landscape works these days. However, when the spammer starts accessing the accounts of users and even taps into the social network’s system in order to send those users spam emails, it’s an entirely different matter. One man learned this the hard way when his spamming ways are about to cost him 30 months of prison time and $310,628.55 in damages.

Sanford Wallace, 47, is called the “Spam King” because he sent over 27 million spam emails to “Facebook” users while taking the guise of people whom those users might know, according to the BBC. As a result, recipients would think that they are getting emails from people they trust and would open those messages, compromising their online security in the process.

Wallace earned a lot of money between 2008 and 2009 through a practice which a statement from the US Attorney's Office described as redirecting users to websites that paid him for each visitor that he sent them.

"Wallace illegally obtained, stored, and exploited Facebook user account information and earned money by redirecting users to other websites," the statement said.

The so-called “Spam King” actually surrendered to the FBI back in 2011 where he subsequently pleaded guilty to the charges against him.

According to PC Mag, Wallace used the name “David Frederix” when he setup a fake Facebook account. He then setup an automated process with which he was able to sign in to the accounts of other people. After doing so, he was able to retrieve the list of friends that the hacked users had and send messages to them.

As for the email spam that he was able to send out, Wallace was able to do so by breaking into Facebook’s system three times. The total number of accounts compromised amounted to 500,000.