MySpace wants to bar 'spam king'

MySpace.com on Tuesday said it has filed suit against Sanford Wallace, seeking to bar the "spam king" and his affiliated companies from the social-networking site.

In the suit, filed Friday in U.S. District Court for the Central District of California in Los Angeles, MySpace accuses Wallace of violating state and federal laws including the federal Can-Spam Act and California's antispam and antiphishing statutes, the company said in a statement.

MySpace charges that Wallace launched a phishing scam in October to fraudulently access MySpace profiles. He also allegedly created profiles, groups and forums on MySpace, spammed thousands of users with unwanted advertisements and lured MySpace users to his Web sites, according to the complaint.

"Individuals who try to spam or phish our members are not welcome on MySpace," Hemanshu Nigam, chief security officer for MySpace, said in the statement. The lawsuit seeks a permanent injunction barring Wallace and his affiliated companies from the MySpace site, in addition to unspecified monetary damages.

The MySpace action is only the latest legal claim against Wallace, a spam king-turned-spyware master. He has been sued by the Federal Trade Commission and companies including America Online and Concentric Network Corp. In May, Wallace and his company Smartbot.net were ordered by a federal judge to give up $4,089,500 in ill-gotten gains.

MySpace, just as other Internet companies, is taking action to fight abuse of its service. The company, part of Fox Interactive Media, has also sued Scott Richter charging violations of state and federal antispam laws.

An attempt to reach Feeble Minded Productions--a business named in the suit and run by Wallace, according to MySpace--was unsuccessful.

[SeizeCTRL]

Too bad this isn't Russia

This "spam king" would quickly meet an unfortunate accident.

I think it should be legal to hunt down the spamers and beat the ever living hell out of them. Make up some post spam stress disorder type disease and walk out of court with the sympathy of the jury.

[aabcdefghij987654321]

mySpace isn't doing enough

They ought to cite this man's repeated illegal behavior and request he be banned from all internet related business activities.

[wbenton]

It will continue...

He has been sued by the Federal Trade Commission and companies including America Online and Concentric Network Corp and now by MySpace... and over time... he'll also probably be sued by others.

The problem here is that our current laws just aren't strong enough to take him out of business.

His business is so lucrative, that the punitive damages he must pay out... even if in the millions, is probably only a drop in the bucket of his total earnings.

The PROFIT MUST be taken out of Spamming or else it will continue.

Things like a $1.00/Spam fine with a minimum of 10-15 years in prison. For those major spammers who send out millions of spam a day, that would run the fines up to millions of dollars per day!!!

Spam needs to be canned. And the only way to do it is to make it unprofitable and not worth the risk of long imprisonment!

FWIW