If there is any money, that is. Wallace already owes the US Federal Trade Commission $US4 million from a recent case. And the latest decision was a default judgement, which means the defendants did not show up in court. Observers suggest collecting the award may prove difficult.
Who stands to gain? The judgement, made under the CAN SPAM law, was based on a penalty of $US300 per message. But it won't be going to the more than 700,000 MySpace members that received spam messages from the duo. Oh no. They were just the people inconvenienced by the junk mail, and in some cases tricked into visiting porn sites.
The case was brought by MySpace, which alleged the pair obtained members' usernames and passwords through a phishing campaign, and then used those accounts - as well as others they had created - to send the spam messages.
The company claimed this caused it to incur costs associated with the delivery of those messages and with dealing with resulting customer complaints. So that's where the money - if it can be found - is going.
I think I have a better idea.
CONTINUED
Spammers stung for $US230 million - but who collects?
A US court has made a $US230 million judgement against a pair of spammers, one of them the notorious Sanford "Spamford" Wallace. But the money might not be going where you would expect.
RECRUITMENT & RETENTION REPORT 2013
HIRE OR FIRE? BUY OR BUILD2013 is well underway and Australian companies need to know whether they should invest in IT skills training or pay a premium for the people they need.
If you want to know which choices are being made in your sector, what skills are hard to find, which sectors intend to hire or fire and where the IT spend is going, this free report is must have.
Stephen Withers
Stephen Withers is one of Australia¹s most experienced IT journalists, having begun his career in the days of 8-bit 'microcomputers'. He covers the gamut from gadgets to enterprise systems. In previous lives he has been an academic, a systems programmer, an IT support manager, and an online services manager. Stephen holds an honours degree in Management Sciences, a PhD in Industrial and Business Studies, and is a senior member of the Australian Computer Society.
