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by Mike Masnick


Filed Under:
sanford wallace, spamford wallace

Companies:
myspace




MySpace Wins Against Spamford Wallace Who Has Disappeared (Once Again)

from the old-habits-die-hard dept

Remember Sanford "Spamford" Wallace? Back in the 90s, he was the face of the proud spammer. He was quoted widely and proclaimed himself the spam king (which he insisted was legal). That was great until the law caught up to him and he claimed he reformed. For a little while he went into the nightclub business, which didn't work out. So, he jumped on the next big thing: spyware. A $4 million fine later, and he apparently moved on to spamming MySpace, setting up 11,000 fake profiles that redirected visitors to various marketing websites.

MySpace sued him for this and a judge has ruled in the company's favor, in large part because Wallace pretty much ignored the case. At first he procrastinated and gave excuses, and then just stopped responding altogether. This isn't the first time this has happened, either. With that whole spyware case a few years back, even Wallace's lawyer admitted that Wallace had disappeared entirely. Sense a pattern? Wallace seems to jump on any sort of scheming online marketing scam, and when the law finally catches up to him, he runs and hides. Somehow, I doubt that MySpace will collect on any money the court awards it.

17 Comments | Leave a Comment..

 

Reader Comments (rss)

(Flattened / Threaded)

  1. good.

    by koresho - Apr 30th, 2008 @ 4:52am

    I don't much like Myspace, but any spammer that gets shut down, even temporarily, is good news to me...

    (reply to this comment) (link to this comment)

  2. by Anonymous Coward - Apr 30th, 2008 @ 5:04am

    Next time they catch him, they should SHOOT him! Then he can disappear FOREVER!

    (reply to this comment) (link to this comment)

  3. wow

    by direct effect - Apr 30th, 2008 @ 6:58am

    i dind even know about this...

    (reply to this comment) (link to this comment)

  4. And they let him?

    by Mike F.M - Apr 30th, 2008 @ 7:16am

    You would have thought that after his last escape, and the fact that he seems to jump from scam to scam, that they might keep just a bit of a better eye on him.

    (reply to this comment) (link to this comment)

  5. Mr Wallace

    by Richard Head - Apr 30th, 2008 @ 7:24am

    Fucking myspace! Typical of a large organisation ganging up on the little guy!

    wankers

    (reply to this comment) (link to this comment)

  6. Re: Mr Wallace

    by James - Apr 30th, 2008 @ 7:38am

    Little guy......pffft....whatever, they should burn him at the stake, we could use telemarketers as kindling, or hmm... public stoning?

    (reply to this comment) (link to this comment)

  7. Alternative collection

    by ECA - Apr 30th, 2008 @ 7:43am

    IF you cant find the SPAMMER..

    Ever wonder HOw he got permission to ADVERT those sites??
    Isnt it the responsibility of the Person/company BEING adverted, to make sure its LEGAL??

    Collect for the companies...then let the COMPANIES collect from Wallace. Collection and credit corps are NOT easy to run away from.

    (reply to this comment) (link to this comment)

  8. Re: Re: Mr Wallace

    by JS Beckerist - Apr 30th, 2008 @ 8:41am

    ...public stoning?

    Way ahead of you man ;)

    (reply to this comment) (link to this comment)

  9. Useless Schmuck

    by Todd - Apr 30th, 2008 @ 9:09am

    Yep. Yet another nimrod who has no talent other than finding ways to make money by doing nothing except annoying the hell outa of everyone else. It is not a new idea by anymeans. But I just can not stand butt heads like this who have never picked up a hammer or changed a car tire in their life. But at the same time must find themselves to above all others.

    (reply to this comment) (link to this comment)

  10. Re: Re: Re: Mr Wallace

    by dude - Apr 30th, 2008 @ 10:29am

    stoned.....huh?

    (reply to this comment) (link to this comment)

  11. Re: Re: Mr Wallace

    by Anonymous Coward - Apr 30th, 2008 @ 10:40am

    yes, that would be StoneWalling!

    (reply to this comment) (link to this comment)

  12. by Anonymous Coward - Apr 30th, 2008 @ 10:45am

    What's MySpace?

    (reply to this comment) (link to this comment)

  13. by Hyrulio - Apr 30th, 2008 @ 11:18am

    hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha

    what kind of emo loner has 11,000 myspace acounts? i don't even have one!

    (reply to this comment) (link to this comment)

  14. Re:

    by Hyrulio - Apr 30th, 2008 @ 11:20am

    just remembered, i have one, but it's only there because one of my friends wanted me to see some pictures on her account

    (reply to this comment) (link to this comment)

  15. Going after the companies advertised

    by John - May 1st, 2008 @ 4:20pm

    Going after the companies advertised in the spam adverts is certainly an option, but it will probably be useless. Most companies will have the usual "plausible deniability" claim of "We can't keep track of all of our advertising affiliates." or "That was one bad apple. We can't be responsible for him."

    Maybe we need to change the laws so these companies ARE held responsible for every affiliate and advertising that they hire. If their products are spamvertised on MySpace, they should be held accountable.

    (reply to this comment) (link to this comment)

  16. What if he went Legitimate?

    by John - May 15th, 2008 @ 2:33am

    You have to give credit to this guy. He's done everything possible to make a quick buck out of the internet. He's even been successful in some of his exploits.

    If this guy went legitimate and had some patience he could probably have done something great. Instead he went for the quick buck and now is chased down by everyone.

    I guess its a bit like the Drug trade, easy money comes with a price.

    (reply to this comment) (link to this comment)

  17. DJ MASTER WEB

    by DICE HOGG - May 29th, 2008 @ 8:46am

    HE IN LAS VEGAS WAS RUNNING THE SPIN NIGHTCLUB ON FLAMINGO HIM AND VICTORIA THE BITCH I MEAN BARTENDER

    (reply to this comment) (link to this comment)

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