Spamford Wallace Accused Of Spamming MySpace
from the just-can't-let-go dept
Sanford "Spamford" Wallace was the original spam king -- and he was proud of the label. Back in the late 90's he was basically the face of the first generation of spammers. After running into trouble with the law, he promised that he had reformed himself and gone into the nightclub/DJ business. However, the lure of questionable online marketing practices was apparently too much. A few years ago, it was discovered that he was in the spyware/adware business. When the FTC cracked down on him for that, he disappeared for a while before eventually being fined $4 million. You would think that after getting in trouble twice for questionable online marketing, he would have learned to stay away -- but Wallace apparently just can't let go. News Corp. is now suing Wallace for setting up 11,000 fake profiles in MySpace, and using them to redirect visitors to various marketing websites. The article isn't entirely clear on the charges, but it includes charging Wallace with violating CAN SPAM -- suggesting he was also spamming people via email to get them to visit these sites. Either way, someone might want to suggest to Wallace that he not get involved in various online marketing schemes for a while.Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.
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Get a Free iPod...
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well
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Honestly..
Three Strikes is usually reserved for violent repeat offenders. Though who truly knows these days.
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Spam King? Nonsense.
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Think its limited to Spam? Look at the fines Wall Street pays to the SEC. Think they lose money on those? Choicepoint paid a $15 million fine, how much did they profit?
They pay million dollar fines but make billion dollar profits. I am not an accountant, but I know that works out well. Breaking the law and paying fines are a business expense. A cost of doing business. Thats the way things work.
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reality check
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Yeah, the fines really hurt the spam industry.
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What's the point of fines?
What the hell is the point of fining this guy? The article says he was fined FOUR BILLION dollars. FOUR BILLION.
He was rich before, but I don't think it was in the billions.
So if he's bankrupt, how the hell is he still managing to create havoc like this? Where does he get the cash?
If the fine doesn't hurt him much, what was the point in the first place?
This guy's like the Woody Woodpecker of spam.
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This is why spamming should be punishable by death
in his "career". Between the spam, the junk faxing, the spyware,
and everything else....he has eaten up the equivalent of many,
MANY human lifetimes. Consumed the one thing we can never
buy more of, the most precious thing we have. He's a psychopath.
He deserves to die.
But aside from that, there are two other lessons here that those of
us who work in this area have known for years (or decades):
1. There is no such thing as an "ex-spammer".
2. Spam is often not the worst thing they do.
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Re: This is why spamming should be punishable by d
He deserves to die."
-Rich Kulawiec
Hey Pot, have you met Kettle?
Seriously, scamming stupid people and cluttering up the internet is a financial crime, so the response should be financial. He shouldn't be killed for inconveniencing people. That's just plain idiotic. Who's the psychopath, really? You're advocating someone be killed because you don't like their business practices. I hope you never get into a position of authority.
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