(WEB HOST INDUSTRY REVIEW) -- A longtime spammer may potentially serve jail time in relation to a Facebook lawsuit after a California judge ordered him to appear in front of the US Attorney General's Office for criminal proceedings.
The case follows another Facebook spamming case last November, when the company won a $873 million ruling against a Montreal spammer that flooded members' inboxes with sexually explicit messages.
Judge Jeremy Fogel of the US District Court for the Northern District of California referred Sanford Wallace to the US Attorney General's Office to undergo criminal proceedings for allegedly violating a court order that prevented him from accessing Facebook.
In February, Facebook filed a lawsuit against Wallace, Adam Arzoomanian and Scott Shaw for allegedly spamming and phishing the website.
The three men were issued a temporary restraining order prohibiting them from accessing Facebook's network.
Facebook released this statement via company spokesman Barry Schnitt addressing the ruling:
"We see Fogel's ruling as a strong deterrent against spammers. Spammers feel that they are immune from criminal prosecution. Fogel's ruling demonstrates that judges will enforce restraining orders and spammers who violate them will face criminal prosecution."
The ruling on the social network community's civil lawsuit against Wallace stalled after the defendent filed for bankruptcy.
Wallace has had a long history of spamming that dates back to the 1990s.
He started his spamming career with fax spamming, where he sent out thousands of unsolicited offers for timeshares, insurance policies, and foreclosed real estate deals to fax machines.
Last May, a federal judge ruled in favor of MySpace after Wallace and another defendent failed to show up to a hearing.
The two men were ordered to pay $230 million for phishing and spamming MySpace users with links to gambling and pornography websites.
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May 2009 - The Blueprint for a Small Web Host
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