San Jose – A man pleaded guilty on Monday to sending more than 27 million spam messages to Facebook users, federal officials said.
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Melinda Haag – US Attorney in California – said Wallace admitted to having accessed around 500,000 Facebook accounts between November 2008 and February 2009.
The defendant collected login details for Facebook accounts using phishing messages. He then used the information to log into users’ accounts and post spam links on their friends’ walls.
Two times in March 2009 a federal judge ordered Sanford Wallace, 47, of Las Vegas, to stay away from Facebook’s computer network. The Internet traffic provided by those links generated payments for Wallace. Wallace has further been accused of violating a court order preventing him from accessing Facebook’s computer network. He was charged with fraud and criminal contempt.
Sanford Wallace, also known as “the Spam King” and “Spamford Wallace”, will be sentenced in December after pleading guilty to sending the astronomical amount of spam. He faces up to three years for fraud at his December 7 sentencing hearing.
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Wallace’s lawyer, William Burns, didn’t immediately return a call after hours seeking comment on the plea.
