Facebook Wins Nearly $1 Billion From Spammer Who Will Never Pay Up

from the still-must-feel-good dept

Tue, Nov 25th 2008 7:11am — Mike Masnick

If only spammers actually had money and could be forced to pay up when they lose lawsuits... Facebook might have actually found a business model that paid. It appears a judge has ruled in Facebook's favor against a spammer, fining the spammer $873 million for phishing Facebook user logins, and then using account access to bombard other users with millions of spam messages. Of course, the spammer in question has pretty much disappeared, and it's difficult to believe Facebook will receive a penny from the guy, let alone anything near the $873 million (which is probably more than 3 times Facebook's revenue this year).

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Filed Under: fines, social networks, spam
Companies: facebook

14 Comments

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shmengie, 25 Nov 2008 @ 8:33am

if i had $873,000,000, i'd buy pants. lots of pants.
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Dave, 25 Nov 2008 @ 8:36am

Shows what happens when a judge gets to do whatever they want when the defendant doesn't show.

I'm sure a fine of 873,000 would have got as much press but the judge obviously nobody was going to pay anyway...
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Thanatos, 25 Nov 2008 @ 8:48am

Aren't you tired of referring to all monetary transactions as business models? Open Source isn't a Business Model, Give it away and Pray isn't a Business Model, winning a lawsuit from a spammer is definitely not a Business Model. Even if it was purely sarcastic, it's way overdone.

On Topic, they're lucky to have had a name to associate with the phisherman in the first place. If this is just a tactic to scare off other potential spammers, I'm sure they will also take note of how easy it is to disappear
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- Anonymous Coward, 25 Nov 2008 @ 5:45pm
  
  Re:
  Who said anything at all about business models? Those two words do not appear together anywhere on this page except in your post. Feh.
  
  On topic, then. If they've got a name, they've got something to sell creditors to ruin this person's life. At least until they steal another one.
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George Camacho, 25 Nov 2008 @ 8:54am

873,000,000
$873,000,000 after this guy files bankruptcy equals $0.00

I hope Facebook bartered the attorney fees! Maybe the attorneys that took on this case will have a nice profile.

Ohh well!
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Anonymous Coward, 25 Nov 2008 @ 10:19am

Magic Mike Math
873 == 1000? In what math book? Please, if you're going to report facts, try to do so more accurately than the ones that do it for a living.
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- Jeff (profile), 25 Nov 2008 @ 11:12am
  
  Re: Magic Mike Math
  He said "nearly $1 billion".
  
  When your up in that range, the 127 million is a small amount.
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- Anonymous Coward, 25 Nov 2008 @ 11:12am
  
  Re: Magic Mike Math
  no, but 873 is nearly 1000.
  
  it is a little something people like to call "rounding" you might look it up
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- Etch, 25 Nov 2008 @ 11:28am
  
  Re: Magic Mike Math
  Splitting hairs are we? He did say NEARLY. What's another few million dollars
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  - Anonymous Coward, 25 Nov 2008 @ 12:10pm
    
    Re: Re: Magic Mike Math
    So, 501 million is nearly a billion!
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    - Anonymous Coward, 25 Nov 2008 @ 2:11pm
      
      Re: Re: Re: Magic Mike Math
      have you been through grade school? standard rounding applies here. seriously, most of the world understands what mike is saying. if you can't get the concept that 873 is close to a billion than you need help. and, because I'm nice, here is a rough guide to rounding
      
      ~350 million = nearly half a billion
      
      ~500 million = half a billion
      
      ~625 million = over half a billion
      
      ~750 million = nearly a billion
      
      ~1000 million = a billion
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Mike B, 25 Nov 2008 @ 11:24am

Sad that only have we inflated the value of tangible goods, we are now allowing the same thing to happen intangible goods.

there will be nothing left.
Im' filing a lawsuit against my un-self in that using my identity to corrupt my chances of a better tomorrow
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Eisenhans, 25 Nov 2008 @ 4:43pm

Billions
Just goes to show that all is not lost, obviously there are still people around with heaps of money and time to waste on useless bullshit like this !
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Eric, 9 Jan 2009 @ 6:33pm

May wish to read the story a little better
"If only spammers actually had money and could be forced to pay up when they lose lawsuits... Facebook might have actually found a business model that paid. It appears a judge has ruled in Facebook's favor against a spammer,"
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