Back in June I wrote about a ruling against Sanford Wallace, who is one of the most well known spammers. As of today, the case as been settled and “California awarded Facebook $711 million in damages against Sanford Wallace”. Additionally, Wallace now faces possible jail time. Despite the massive settlement, it’s unlikely Wallace will ever show up in California again, or pay the settlement.

Instead, Sanford Wallace is probably moving from country to country, trying to avoid the authorities and living off money stashed in offshore accounts. Despite Sanford’s decision to hop around the world avoiding authorities, Facebook is hailing this judgment as a big win:

    The ruling is the result of tireless effort by our Security and Legal teams, which work to find, expose, and prosecute the sources of spam attacks. As Sam O’Rourke, Associate General Counsel for Facebook, has stated, “We’ll go to the ends of the Earth to protect our users from spam and make sure those who send it are held accountable.” These efforts complement the sophisticated technical systems we continue to develop to limit the impact of these attacks, and where possible, block them altogether.

Facebook is currently dedicated to building advanced spam fighting systems and pursuing those individuals who attempt to scam users on the site. One of the early issues with MySpace was an overload of spam which caused people to go running from the site. Facebook in contrast has aggressively pursued spammers, and while many have slipped through the cracks, most issues are resolved quickly.

This is just one more settlement against Sanford Wallace who has already filed for bankruptcy, however it’s a big win for Facebook who has been working on this case for months now.

Today Facebook obtained a ruling against noted spammer, Sanford Wallace. While a formal ruling has not been posted yet, Facebook has told us that “Judge Fogel agreed that there were grounds for criminal contempt and that the US Attorneys office should investigate Wallace. Wallace filed for bankruptcy, which is not unexpected and only delays our judgment temporarily.” It’s not surprising to see one of the more well known spammers bankrupt.
Then again, Sanford Wallace probably has a lot of money sitting in off shore accounts distributed around the world. Facebook has aggressively pursued spammers since early on. Whether it’s spammers that are trying to dupe users out of their email addresses and Facebook passwords or attempts to get users to download spyware, it all damages the overall user experience. Facebook has also provided the following statement:

“We see Fogel’s ruling as a strong deterrent against spammers. Spammers feel that they are immune from criminal prosecution. Fogel’s ruling demonstrates that judges will enforce restraining orders and spammers who violate them face criminal prosecution. This appears to have had an impact on Wallace who was in court today. To our knowledge, he has not appeared in any of the many previous cases against him.”

While Sanford Wallace has never appeared for a court appearance in his life, at least Facebook is aggressively pursuing the spammers. This ruling appears to be more of a statement than anything else: Facebook will not put up with any spammers anywhere on the site. Have you continued to see spam across the site or has the volume been decreasing for you?