Facebook's 'Spam King' now hanging out at Google+

Sanford Wallace, a.k.a. the "Spam King," surrendered to the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation on Thursday after being indicted on criminal charges for sending millions of unsolicited messages on Facebook.

The U.S. Department of Justice said a federal grand jury in San Jose indicted Wallace, 43, of Las Vegas, on multiple counts of fraud, intentional damage to a protected computer and criminal contempt.

Wallace appeared in court Thursday and was released on a $100,000 bond, according to the DOJ. His next court appearance is Aug. 22. He could get more than 16 years in prison if convicted.

His attorney, K.C. Maxwell, declined to comment.

Facebook was elated. "We applaud the efforts of the U.S. Attorney's Office and the FBI to bring spammers to justice," Chris Sonderby, 

 

Facebook's lead security and investigations counsel said in an e-mailed statement. "We're hopeful that this kind of persistent pressure will act as a deterrent against those attempting to trick and annoy people on Facebook."

 

Facebook sued Wallace in 2009 and won a $711-million civil judgment. As part of that judgment he was banned from Facebook. Read More...

 

 

US man charged over Facebook spam turns himself in

Sanford Wallace, pictured in 1997, has a long history of sending junk mail

A US man charged with sending more than 27 million spam messages to Facebook users has turned himself in.

Sanford Wallace, who is known as the "Spam King", surrendered to FBI agents in California.

Prosecutors allege he developed a program that breached Facebook spam filters and lured users to submit their account details.

Mr Wallace denies the charges, which carry prison sentences of up to 10 years.

He has been released on $100,000 (£61,000) bail.

Prosecutors say Mr Wallace's program posted messages on Facebook users walls - purportedly from friends - urging users to visit a website where their account details were then harvested.

They were then redirected to an affiliate website that earned Wallace "substantial revenue", the charges say.

The program also retrieved lists of Facebook users' friends and posted spam messages on their walls, the indictment adds.

About 500,000 Facebook accounts were compromised between November 2008 and March 2009, leading to more than 27 million spam messages being sent, prosecutors said.

Mr Wallace, who is from Las Vegas, is charged with six counts of electronic mail fraud, three counts of intentional damage to a protected computer and two counts of criminal contempt. Read More...

"Spam King" charged with bombarding Facebook users

Sanford Wallace, known as the "Spam King," has turned himself in to U.S. authorities after he was indicted for masterminding a scheme that sent more than 27 million unsolicited junk messages through Facebook's servers.

The Las Vegas man surrendered to FBI agents to face 11 counts of fraud, intentional damage to a protected computer and criminal contempt for violating previous orders to stay off the social networking sites Facebookand MySpace, prosecutors in San Jose, California said late on Thursday.

Wallace, 43, developed a program that evaded Facebook's spam filters and posted messages encouraging account holders to visit a website, purportedly from a friend, according to the indictment unsealed on Thursday.

Instead, unsuspecting users were prompted to enter their email addresses and passwords and then were redirected to an affiliate website that earned Wallace "substantial revenue" for directing the traffic, the indictment said.

Wallace's program scooped up their information, including their lists of friends, and sent spam messages to them.

Accounts of about 500,000 Facebook users were compromised between November 2008 and March 2009, leading to more than 27 million spam messages being sent, federal prosecutors said.

Facebook previously sued Wallace in 2009 and a federal judge had ordered him not to access Facebook's computer network. But he repeatedly violated that order earlier this year, the prosecutors said.

In that civil lawsuit, the judge awarded Facebook some $711 million, although the company said it did not expect to receive much of that amount. Facebook welcomed the new indictment.

"We will continue to pursue and support both civil and criminal consequences for spammers and others who attempt to harm Facebook or the people who use our service," Chris Sonderby, a lawyer for the company, said in a statement. Read More...

Teachers, students using social sites raises concerns

Lyanne Melendez

SAN FRANCISCO (KGO) -- A new state law in Missouri is making it illegal for teachers to be friends with students on social networking sites like Facebook. The idea is to protect students from any sexual misconduct. That new law is causing quite a stir in Silicon Valley. Already, one Bay Area company has come up with a solution that connects teachers and students in a safe and supervised environment.

The problem with some of the social networking sites is that they are accessible to so many people, therefore making students vulnerable. The law in Missouri prohibits sites unless school administrators and parents have access to them.

At a conference on technology in schools, Silicon Valley teachers learned the latest computer tools that will help them in the classroom. Facebook and Twitter were not among them.

"There's stuff that I put up there that I don't want my students to see, stuff about my children, my family, that is just not for them," teacher Mariana Garcia said.

"There are some dangers, we've seen some examples of that and I think appropriately addressing the danger to make sure that we can mitigate the risks but yet we can leverage social networking for all the good that it has to offer so we can increase student achievement," Silicon Valley Education Foundation spokesperson Muhammed Chaudhry said.

None of these teachers ABC7 spoke to interact with students through Facebook.

Still one of them said she sees nothing wrong with teachers and students communicating through Facebook. Read More..

Facebook Uncovers 'Smoking Gun' Evidence in Paul Ceglia Case

By IB Times Staff Reporter


The Paul Ceglia vs. Facebook lawsuit has got another twist in the tale, as the Menlo Park, California-based social networking company has claimed to have revealed "smoking gun" evidence against Ceglia, the New York state resident, who claimed half of Mark Zuckerberg's stake in Facebook.

According to a Facebook court filing on Thursday, the social networking giant has strong proof that the contract, which Ceglia claimed to have struck with Facebook co-founder Mark Zuckerberg in 2003, is fraudulent. Ceglia said that as per the contract, he is entitled to half of the company.

Attorneys for Facebook said that key documents have been uncovered from Ceglia's computers that weaken his claims. Facebook, however, didn't disclose the documents, but asked for permission from a U.S. judge to make them public, Reuters reported.

"(Ceglia) does not want the public to know what was discovered on his computers," attorneys for Facebook wrote, "because it includes smoking-gun documents that conclusively establish that he fabricated the purported contract and that this entire lawsuit is a fraud and a lie." Read More...