Facebook wins $712-million in damages in spammer case

TORONTO - Facebook has won 712 million dollars in damages after a California court ruled against a spammer for trying to get personal information from the users of the social networking website.

The court ordered Sanford Wallace to pay Facebook the money after the company complained that he had used the site to induce members to click on messages that appeared legitimate but were actually designed to capture personal information.

Writing on its official blog, Facebook said that the decision was “another important victory in our fight against spam”.

The website pledged to pursue damages from other alleged spammers.

“While we don’t expect to receive the vast majority of the award, we hope that this will act as a continued deterrent,” The Globe and Mail quoted the company as saying.

Court documents suggest that Wallace already has judgments against him for more than 200m dollars.

In addition to the new financial penalty, the judge barred Wallace from creating or maintaining a Facebook account. (ANI)