Short Bytes: A hacker who calls himself Spam King has been sentenced to 30 months in prison for sending 27 million spams on Facebook. He will have to pay thousands of dollars as fine as well. The court has also barred him for possession of any kind of computer device.
Wallace led his mass spamming attack on Facebook in the time span of November 2008 and March 2009, affecting 50,000 genuine users. He sent around 27 million spam messages on Facebook which included a link to capture user credentials and extract friends list. He, then, sent messages to the users present in those lists. The link present in the message would redirect them to other websites in order to increase web traffic and earn cash.
Sanford Wallace, born in 1968, started his Spam King career as a junk fax sender in the initial days. Junk Fax is a telemarketing practice wherein unsolicited advertisements are spread by the use of fax medium. This method was outlawed in the United States in 1991.
In the 1990s, Wallace used to run a company called Cyber Promotions which used to send unwanted advertisement emails for the purpose of generating revenue. His company was a common name in blacklisted email lists. Whether the US government or internet giants like Facebook and MySpace, many were after him. Facebook and MySpace even filed civil suits for the spam bombs he dropped in their digital territory in 2008 and 2009.
Currently, Wallace has been sentenced by the court to 30 months in prison and has been ordered to pay a fine of $310,000. Wallace pleaded guilty to “one count of fraud and related activity in connection with electronic mail and one count of criminal contempt of court”.
The judge Edward J. Davila also ordered that he would be sent to a medical treatment and kept on a probation period of five years after his release from the prison. The court’s order preclude him to own or make use of any computer device unless he obtains the permission of the probation order.
Also Read: How To Hack Anyone’s Facebook Account Just By Knowing Phone Number
