FaceBook Wins $873 Million Judgement Against Spammer || The Mac Observer

Skip navigational links

Choose text size:

You're viewing an article in TMO's historic archive vault. Here, we've preserved the comments and how the site looked along with the article. Use this link to view the article on our current site:
FaceBook Wins $873 Million Judgement Against Spammer

FaceBook Wins $873 Million Judgement Against Spammer

by , 5:40 PM EST, November 25th, 2008

FaceBook has won a US$873 million judgement against a Canadian spammer who used a phishing techniques and other methods to gain control of FaceBook user accounts that then spammed other members. Max Kelly, FaceBook's Director of Security, made the announcement on the FaceBook blog, saying his company had successfully sued the spammer under the Controlling the Assault of Non-Solicited Pornography and Marketing Act (CAN-SPAM).

Adam Guerbuez of Montreal and his company Atlantis Blue Capital are the particular spammers in question, though FaceBook doesn't expect to be able to actually collect much, if any of the judgement.

Mr. Kelly wrote, "Does Facebook expect to quickly collect $873 million and share the proceeds in some way with our users? Alas, no. It's unlikely that Geurbez and Atlantis Blue Capital could ever honor the judgment rendered against them (though we will certainly collect everything we can). But we are confident that this award represents a powerful deterrent to anyone and everyone who would seek to abuse Facebook and its users."

Whether it will serve as a deterrent for future spammers remains to be seen. For instance, Tim Beyers at Motley Fool reminded us that MySpace earned a judgement of $230 million against a spammer earlier in 2008, but spam can still be found on MySpace.

Recent TMO Headlines - Updated December 19th

Tue, 6:43 PM: Ziistle Triangle Foldable Wireless Qi-Certified Charger: $29.74
Tue, 6:11 PM: Apple TV 4K is Glorious, Underrated and Essential
Tue, 5:53 PM: Resolved: Making Better Mac Backups
Tue, 4:19 PM: Apple Manufacturing, AI Regulation – TMO Daily Observations 2018-12-18
Tue, 11:49 AM: Swiss Apple Pay Issue Resolved
Tue, 11:19 AM: Speculation on When Apple's Popular 5th Avenue Store Will Reopen
Tue, 10:55 AM: Qualcomm Says Apple Still 'Flouting' the Law
Tue, 9:45 AM: Add Apple ID Funds and get a 10% Bonus
Tue, 9:30 AM: Kids Should Have Privacy in Education
Tue, 9:18 AM: Images of New Smart Battery Case for iPhone XS and XS Max Leaked
Tue, 9:15 AM: Paul McCartney, Emma Stone Make Apple Music Anti-Bully Video
Tue, 9:00 AM: Peter Cao's Journey Using an iPad Pro as His Main Computer

© The Mac Observer, Inc. -- All rights reserved. All information presented on this site is copyrighted by The Mac Observer, Inc. except where otherwise noted. No portion of this site may be copied without express written consent. Other sites are invited to link to any aspect of this site provided that all content is presented in its original form and is not placed within another frame. The Mac Observer is an independent publication and has not been authorized, sponsored, or otherwise approved by Apple, Inc.