Will Spamford Wallace Finally Face Criminal Charges?

from the looking-that-way dept

If you've been around the tech world for a while, you should know the name Sanford Wallace -- better know as Spamford. He was one of the first big spammers in the 90s, and quite proud of it. After a variety of lawsuits, he claimed he had gone straight, and even opened a nightclub somewhere. But it wasn't long before he was back in the game, and accused of being in the spyware business by the FTC. In response... Wallace disappeared (even his lawyer couldn't find him), and he was eventually fined $4 million. Last year, MySpace sued Wallace (who, again didn't bother showing up) and won $234 million (which it will never see, of course).

Earlier this year, Facebook sued him for spamming Facebook as well -- and, par for the course, he didn't bother showing up at all... until Friday. Apparently he first declared bankruptcy on Thursday and showed up at the court hearing on Friday. The bankruptcy protects him against the unpaid fines for now... but, the hearing on Friday was about handing the case over to federal prosecutors, given the contempt for the law Wallace has shown to date. In other words, he can try to disappear again, but he may end up in prison, rather than just ducking out on the hundreds of millions of dollars he owes for spamming.

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