14 DAY TRIAL // Sanford "Spamford" Wallace, a notorious spammer who promoted himself as a spam king in the '90s, has been charged with fraud for a phishing attack he allegedly launched on Facebook in 2008.
Wallace has already lost a civil lawsuit brought by Facebook for his spamming activity in which the company was awarded $711 million in damages. He also lost a similar case brought by MySpace in 2008 which resulted in a $230 million judgement against him.
The notorious spammer has a long history of being sued and battling anti-spam organizations, however, this is the first time when he faces criminal charges.
An indictment returned by the US District Court of Northern California charges Wallace with six counts of fraud and two of intentionally damaging a protected computer in connection with an attack against Facebook users.
The prosecutors claim that for a period of five months, starting in November 2008, Wallace spammed users and directed them to a fake Facebook login page with the intent of stealing their login credentials.
Compromised accounts were then used to propagate the spam and attack even more users. The compromised accounts were later used for spamming purposes.
Wallace was also charged with two counts of criminal contempt for violating an order to not access Facebook. Prosecutors claim that he logged onto the social network using an account set up with a fake name while aboard a Virgin Airlines flight from Las Vegas to New York.
The spammer surrendered to FBI agents in Las Vegas and after appearing in court this week, he was released on bail. He was ordered not to access Facebook or MySpace again. If convicted, Wallace faces a maximum sentence of three years in prison for each count of fraud and 10 years for the intentional damage ones.