"Spammer King" Accused of Bombarding Facebook Users

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Sanford Wallace, known as the "king of spam", surrendered to U.S. authorities after he was accused of masterminding a scheme that sent more than 27 million unsolicited spam emails through Facebook's servers. 
The Las Vegas man surrendered to FBI agents to face 11 counts of fraud, intentional damage to a protected computer and contempt for violating previous orders to stay out of Facebook and MySpace, prosecutors in San Jose , Calif., said late Thursday. 
Wallace, 43, has developed a program that evaded spam filters Facebook and posts encouraging account holders to visit a website, purportedly from a friend, according to the indictment unsealed Thursday. 

Instead, unsuspecting users are prompted to enter your email address and password and then redirected to an affiliate website that Wallace won "substantial revenue" to direct traffic, according to the indictment. 
Wallace picked up his program data, including their friends lists and messages are sent spam to them. 
The accounts of about 500,000 Facebook users committed between November 2008 and March 2009, leading to more than 27 million spam messages sent, federal prosecutors said. 
Wallace and sued Facebook in 2009 and a federal judge had ordered him not access the computer network Facebook. However, raped repeatedly by early this year, prosecutors said. 
In this civil proceeding, the judge awarded Facebook about $ 711 million, although the company said it expects to receive no more than that. Facebook welcomed the new indictment. 
"We will continue to follow and the support of both civil and criminal consequences for spammers and others who try to harm Facebook or people who use our service," said Chris Sonderby, a company lawyer said in a statement. 
Wallace made his initial appearance in federal court Thursday and was released on bail of $ 100,000 unsecured. He pleaded not guilty. 
He was ordered again not to access MySpace or Facebook. 
"Mr. Wallace expects to defend itself," said his attorney, Maxwell KC. 
If Wallace is convicted, the six counts of fraud subject to imprisonment not exceeding three years. 
The three counts of damage to a protected computer with a maximum penalty of 10 years. The two criminal contempt charges are subject to penalties determined by the court. 
The case is U.S. v Sanford Wallace, No. 11-CR-456 in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California (San Jose).