There is spam in the world everywhere you look, whether it be in newspapers in the form of adverts or in your inbox as emails offering enhancements to your body or cheap priced software. But the last place you should expect spam is in your Facebook inbox.
It seems that Facebook didn"t like their users getting bombarded with stupid messages either, and they took the issue to court. On Friday, the courts ruled and now the offending spammers, Adam Guerbuez and Atlantis Blue Capital, must pay Facebook a total of $873 million. This breaks the previous record, $234 million, that MySpace received in a similar spamming case.
Most spamming companies turn a big profit each year, but nowhere near as much as they have been ordered to pay Facebook, so the chances of Facebook ever seeing their money is pretty slim. In addition, no one in the company will face jail time meaning the verdict is really more of a warning to other potential spammers, of what could happen if they try it.
The company was charged under a law called CAN-SPAM Act which was signed into law by President George W. Bush in 2003.