Facebook Awarded $360 Million Judgement Against Spammer

Facebook scored another win in its fight against spammers as a federal court awarded the company $360,500,000 in statutory damages from a phisher.

The ruling from US district court judge Jeremy Fogel is against a man named Philip Porembski, who is believed to have hijacked at least 116,000 Facebook accounts.

"Since October 2008, Defendants [Porembski and his company] allegedly have obtained login credentials for at least 116,000 Facebook accounts without authorization, and they have sent more than 7.2 million spam messages to Facebook users.

"According to Facebook, the messages ask recipients to click on a link to a 'phishing' site designed to trick users into divulging their Facebook login information.

"Once users divulge the information, Defendants use it to send spam messages to the users' friends, repeating the cycle.

"In addition, certain spam messages allegedly redirect users to websites that pay Defendants for each visit," the complaint read.

In addition to the huge sum he was ordered to pay, Porembski is also the subject of a permanent injunction which bans him from using Facebook.

"We're pleased with the win, which is just another result in an ongoing enforcement effort," says Facebook, but the amount of scams circulating every day on the social network doesn't leave the impression that scammers are very scared.

Porembski is not the first to have a huge monetary judgement issued against them for spamming on Facebook, nor is his fine the largest.

A Canadian man named Adam Guerbuez was ordered last year by a San Jose court to pay $873,277,200 (or $1,068,928,721 in Canadian dollars) in damages after sending 4 million spam messages.

Guerbuez appealed the sentence in Canda, but the Quebec Superior Court upheld the default judgment issued in the spammer's absence by the US court.