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.

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Companies: myspace

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Comments on “MySpace Wins Against Spamford Wallace Who Has Disappeared (Once Again)”

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19 Comments
Todd says:

Useless Schmuck

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.

John (profile) says:

Going after the companies advertised

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.

John (user link) says:

What if he went Legitimate?

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.

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