Spamford Wallace Surrenders To The FBI; May Finally Go To Jail

from the wow dept

If you're an internet "old timer" who paid attention to the early "spam wars," you know the name of Sanford "Spamford" Wallace. While plenty of people have been described as "the spam king," he was the original kingpin (starting in the junk fax business, and then moving on to email in the mid-90s). He was proud of being called the spam king... but after the business started to become risky, he claimed that he "retired" in the late 90s, and (partially) owned a nightclub. However, the lure of the spam was apparently too much. He jumped into the spyware business and ran into trouble with the FTC. Things got weird when Wallace disappeared and his lawyer asked to withdraw from the case, noting that he couldn't reach Wallace. Wallace was hit with a massive fine from the FTC, which it appears he ignored.

He then moved on to spamming MySpace, which got him sued. His strategy was established: he just ignored the lawsuit. The end result? A $234 million fine. Of course, MySpace went downhill and up came Facebook. Facebook sued him in 2009 and won an astounding $711 million. This time, Wallace actually did show up in court, but claimed he was totally bankrupt. We wondered, at the time, if there was actually anything that could be done to stop him, since he seemed to just keep on spamming, and the fines (and some of the cases themselves) being issued against him were just ignored. There were some questions two years ago if he'd finally be brought up on criminal charges, and it appears that's finally happened.

Wallace apparently surrendered to the FBI after an indictment last month. He's now facing 40 years in jail and a potential $2 million fine (which seems like nothing compared to the earlier fines).

Some of the details in the article also suggest that Wallace simply couldn't stay away from Facebook, despite a court order not to access the site at all:

Wallace, who was ordered by U.S. District Court Judge Jeremy Fogel in 2009 not to access Facebook, was also charged with violating that order by accessing the social network on an airline flight from Las Vegas to New York in April 2009 and by maintaining an account under the name David Sinful-Saturdays Fredericks for a few weeks earlier this year.

I will say that 40 years sounds excessive. However, it also seems clear that he has no interest in following the law when it comes to these things.

Filed Under: arrested, sanford wallace, spam, spamford
Companies: facebook, myspace

Sanford Wallace Loses Again; Owes Facebook $711 Million

from the good-luck-collecting dept

Sanford "Spamford" Wallace, of course, was the original "spam king" back in the 1990s. Despite his claim to have reformed at one point, he apparently has been spamming various social networks and advertising spyware. Back in 2004, the FTC investigated him and fined him $4 million. Last year, MySpace won a $234 million judgment against him. Wallace responded by disappearing. At one point, even his lawyer couldn't find him. Earlier this year, when Facebook sued him for spamming their users as well, it seemed unlikely that he would bother to respond. Surprising pretty much everyone, he showed up in court, though claimed he was totally bankrupt. Either way, Facebook has just been awarded a $711 million judgment against him. Facebook, of course, will never see a dime of that money. But, the real question is what else can be done to stop Wallace. He's been spamming for well over a decade at this point, and despite multiple multi-million dollar judgments against him, he hasn't stopped. What else can be done?

Filed Under: sanford wallace, spam, spamford
Companies: facebook

Will Spamford Wallace Finally Face Criminal Charges?

from the looking-that-way dept

If you've been around the tech world for a while, you should know the name Sanford Wallace -- better know as Spamford. He was one of the first big spammers in the 90s, and quite proud of it. After a variety of lawsuits, he claimed he had gone straight, and even opened a nightclub somewhere. But it wasn't long before he was back in the game, and accused of being in the spyware business by the FTC. In response... Wallace disappeared (even his lawyer couldn't find him), and he was eventually fined $4 million. Last year, MySpace sued Wallace (who, again didn't bother showing up) and won $234 million (which it will never see, of course).

Earlier this year, Facebook sued him for spamming Facebook as well -- and, par for the course, he didn't bother showing up at all... until Friday. Apparently he first declared bankruptcy on Thursday and showed up at the court hearing on Friday. The bankruptcy protects him against the unpaid fines for now... but, the hearing on Friday was about handing the case over to federal prosecutors, given the contempt for the law Wallace has shown to date. In other words, he can try to disappear again, but he may end up in prison, rather than just ducking out on the hundreds of millions of dollars he owes for spamming.

Filed Under: criminal charges, sanford wallace, spamford, spamming
Companies: facebook

Guess Who Facebook's Just Sued For Spam?

from the the-usual-suspects dept

Last year, when MySpace won an uncollectable judgment against well-known spammer Stanford "Spamford" Wallace, part of the punishment was that he wasn't allowed to set up any more MySpace profiles. Mike noted at the time that it didn't say anything about Facebook, speculating that's where Spamford might pop up next. So guess who Facebook's just sued for sending spam Facebook messages? Yep, ol' Spamford and a couple of his pals. Facebook alleges they used phishing attacks to break into users' accounts, then sent messages to their contacts. It sounds pretty similar to the previous MySpace case, and it's hard to imagine it won't end up the same way: Wallace disappearing, Facebook getting a default judgment with an uncollectable judgment, and Spamford moving on to the next big social site.

Filed Under: sanford wallace, spamford wallace
Companies: facebook

MySpace Wins An Uncollectable $234 Million Award In Spam Case

from the sending-a-message? dept

Last month, we wrote about how MySpace had won its case against Sanford "Spamford" Wallace -- the infamous 1990s "Spam King" who (despite losing many court battles and owing millions in fines) simply can't seem to give up his obsession with scammy marketing techniques. The win was a default judgment, mainly because Wallace simply disappeared and stopped responding to court requests. Today, a judge ruled on the punishment, officially awarding MySpace $234 million from Wallace and his associate Walter Rines. Given Wallace's disappearing act (which he's done in the past as well) it's unlikely that MySpace will ever see a dime of the money, but that hasn't stopped the company from touting this as the largest ever award under CAN SPAM. Amusingly, the extremely short court ruling also bars Wallace from setting up any new MySpace profiles. It doesn't say anything about Facebook, though, so perhaps that's where we'll see him next...

Filed Under: can spam, fines, sanford wallace, social networks, spam, spamford, walter rines
Companies: myspace

MySpace Wins Against Spamford Wallace Who Has Disappeared (Once Again)

from the old-habits-die-hard dept

Remember Sanford "Spamford" Wallace? Back in the 90s, he was the face of the proud spammer. He was quoted widely and proclaimed himself the spam king (which he insisted was legal). That was great until the law caught up to him and he claimed he reformed. For a little while he went into the nightclub business, which didn't work out. So, he jumped on the next big thing: spyware. A $4 million fine later, and he apparently moved on to spamming MySpace, setting up 11,000 fake profiles that redirected visitors to various marketing websites.

MySpace sued him for this and a judge has ruled in the company's favor, in large part because Wallace pretty much ignored the case. At first he procrastinated and gave excuses, and then just stopped responding altogether. This isn't the first time this has happened, either. With that whole spyware case a few years back, even Wallace's lawyer admitted that Wallace had disappeared entirely. Sense a pattern? Wallace seems to jump on any sort of scheming online marketing scam, and when the law finally catches up to him, he runs and hides. Somehow, I doubt that MySpace will collect on any money the court awards it.

Filed Under: sanford wallace, spamford wallace
Companies: myspace

FTC Recongizes That Perhaps Spamford Wallace Likes To Spam People

from the i'll-have-your-spam-i-love-it dept

If you've followed the spam/scam space for a while, you know the story of Sanford "Spamford" Wallace -- the original big name spammer. He was proud of what he did, though eventually claimed to shut down and go legit, even trying to run a night club for a while. However, the allure of questionable internet marketing activities proved to be too strong, and before long he was back on track, this time in the spyware business. Eventually, the FTC fined him $4 million, though, they apparently drastically lowered the amount when he showed hardship. A year ago, it was discovered that soon after this settlement with the FTC, Wallace went right back to spyware distribution using MySpace. The FTC doesn't seem nearly as inclined to cut Wallace any slack this time around, as it's filed contempt charges against Wallace, demanding that he hand over all of the profits from his MySpace scamming. The filing reveals more details that show just how scammy Wallace was on MySpace. He didn't just set up 11,000 fake profiles, as mentioned in the original filing, but he also used phishing techniques to get other users' logins, and then used the logins to spam other MySpace pages with comments. On top of that, he installed software to make it quite difficult to delete those comments. All this effort paid off, apparently earning Wallace $555,850 in just six months.

Filed Under: ftc, myspace, sanford wallace, spyware