Facebook Spammer Will Likely Be Eating It

Spam Doesn't Pay - Facebook Spammer Ordered to Pay
Most of us find spam annoying, if not potentially harmful. As spam continues to
infiltrate just about every aspect of our internet lives, one has to wonder if anything is really being done about it.

Wonder no more.

Facebook was recently awarded $711 million in damages when Wallace Sanford was sued for spamming the site by hacking Facebook accounts and sending phony messages. According to CNN.com, being caught spamming isn't new to Sanford. The "Spam King" had previously been sued by
Facebook Spammer Will Likely Be Eating It
Date: October 30, 2009
San Jose, CA
United States of America
MySpace in 2008, as well as fined $4 million by the Federal Trade Commission in 2006 for excessive pop-up ads.

Why do people spam? Most of the spam clogging your email inbox is likely geared towards trying to get you to buy into some worthless get-rich-quick scheme, or lure you to a porn site where it's hoped that you'll be tantalized enough to part with your hard earned dollars to see more.

For some spammers it may be the thrill of it all, they do it because they can, probably hacking into more secure sites as the previous thrill wears off. In the case of bankrupt Wallace Sanford, it obviously didn't bring him any money, but spamming probably bought him a 'high'. Like a junkie, he'd do anything for his 'fix', After previous prosecutions, it's unlikely he'd be hired by any legitimate company where he might be able to use his talents, so he resorted to what he knew. The Facebook Spammer's efforts didn't net him anything but another lawsuit and possible jail time.

What can you do to control spam? Most email programs have a spam filter, and some that you can set to automatically send emails with certain keywords to the spam or junk folder. To help prevent your Facebook and other accounts from being hacked and used for spamming (or worse) by another party, change your passwords frequently and ask your friends to tell you about any suspicious activity they may see that appears to be coming from your account.