Los Angeles (CA) – MySpace has won a massive $230 million judgment against two notorious SPAM “kings” after the pair didn’t even show up to court.   The company had sued so-called “Spam King” Sanford Wallace and his associate Walter Rines for sending out 730,000 messages from stolen and hacked MySpace accounts.  Wallace and Rines didn’t show up for a court hearing and MySpace won a summary judgment.

Wallace and Rines gained notoriety in the mid-90s for running SPAM email operations that spat out up to 30 million messages a day.  In the late 1990s, Wallace tried going semi-legit by forming GTMI and SmartBotPRO.net, both opt-in email marketing companies.  However, he was forced to shut down after the Federal Trade Commission won a $4 million judgment against him.

According to the Associated Press, approximately $157.4 million of the award was entered against Wallace and Rines jointly while an extra $63.4 million was added on against Rines under the CAN-SPAM Act.  An extra $6 million was added for attorney and miscellaneous fees.

Makes Spamming Less Profitable

May 14, 2008 11:37     

If there are more of these against spammers, it would make it less profitable and less worth while to do.
TomLeeM/BigWarpGuy report abuse vote down vote up Votes: +2

Yay

May 14, 2008 12:12     

Please, keep suing these supposed kings. I would much like to have less spam.
Joshua report abuse vote down vote up Votes: +2

what good is a judgement that they can never collect

May 14, 2008 16:42     

this is great that the courts are standing up against these spammers, but it just doesn't make a difference. Start by seizing their property and assets as collateral before they have to show up to court. THEN we are talking!!!!
kodi report abuse vote down vote up Votes: +4

I think theses dudes are some where in Mexico drink...

May 15, 2008 09:27     

I think theses dudes are some where in Mexico drinking a corona
09 F9 report abuse vote down vote up Votes: +0