Self-proclaimed "Spam King" Sanford Wallace risk more than forty years in prison and more than $ 2 million (1.4 million) fine. The man, aged 43, is accused of approximately 500,000 compromised Facebook accounts, between November 2008 and March 2009, and have sent more than 27 million spam. Wallace pleaded not guilty at a hearing Thursday, August 4, in federal court in San Jose in the United States.
As to compromise the accounts of users of social network, the suspect used the technique of "phishing" (phishing English), which is to fraudulently obtain credentials of a user, by mimicking an email from an administration or a trusted site. Mr. Wallace then sent new messages to contacts profit account compromise.
SEVERAL "exploits"
In 2009, a judge had already ordered Sanford Wallace to pay a record $ 711 million (495 million) to Facebook, for these massive spam mailing. In its complaint, the social network, which claims 750 million registered, described Wallace as "a notorious swindler of the Internet has been involved in various illegal activities of spamming and other malicious software since the mid-1990s ".
In 2008, MySpace had also received $ 230 million (160 million) in damages. Sanford Wallace and an accomplice, Walter Rines, were convicted of sending messages to enable them to pretend to be the typical users of MySpace and the vigilance of their recipients.
The Federal Trade Commission, responsible for enforcing the competition law, also sentenced Mr. Wallace in 2006 to pay a fine of $ 4 million (2.8 million), for spreading software opening windows unsolicited advertising by the user.
Sanford Wallace must return to court Aug. 22.
