Montreal Tech Watch

Facebook awarded $873 million in spam case against Montreal spammer

By Heri Nov 25th 2008 in Development

Facebook won yesterday a case against Adam Guerbuez, and his “company”, Atlantis Blue Capital. Facebook sued under the CAN-SPAM (Controlling the Assault of Non-Solicited Pornography and Marketing) Act, and was awared $873 million US in damages.

Adam Guerbuez stole user credentials on varous phishing websites he setup, and then used those login information to spam Facebook users & friends about various dating, porn, drug and “male-enhacement pills” websites. See also here a story on how he got rich by selling videos of people attacking homeless people. Adam Guerbuez, his company, and 26 other indivuduals identified in the case, were based & operating in Montreal.

The ruling also forbid M. Guerbuez to use again Facebook, although it’s probably the least of his worries.

This is by far the biggest amount awarded to a company for anti-spam. Myspace also received a favourable ruling earlier this year, but the damages were “just” $230 million.

  • Intellitix provides rfid access to Coachella

    #coachella

  • twtspire.com| idea for the next startup = One Tweet Away? twtspire.com| idea for the next startup = One Tweet Away?

    twtspire.com| idea for the next startup = One Tweet Away?

    Startups solve problems. So if you find a problem there’s probably a startup idea lying somewhere nearby. A Montreal developer Kenji Williams developed an app called twtspire.com that scours twitter and automatically detects tweets from people that wonder why a solution doesn’t exist for a specific problem they’re having. Here are example of tweets from [...]

  • AccelerateMTL : more than just a conference

    AccelerateMTL is coming up on the afternoon on May 23rd, right after the FounderFuel demo day. It’s announced as a conference full of good keynotes, from successful entrepreneurs like BeyondTheRack founder, renowned Internet marketers, and other Internet execs. View more on the eventbrite page. As the name suggests, the presentations were curated to accelerate startups. [...]

Comments

  • Alex T. November 25, 2008

    Who said spam doesn’t pay?!?!

  • Guillaume Theoret November 25, 2008

    I hope they manage to collect.

  • Heri November 25, 2008

    I also hope Facebook manages to collect the damages from Adam, everything he got from the scheme

  • Mox Folder November 25, 2008

    Seems like Facebook finally get his economic model…

  • Denis Canuel November 25, 2008

    If this guy doesn’t have any personal assets in USA then Facebook won’t see a single penny. They might issue an arrest warrant and he might not be able to visit USA anymore but that should be pretty much it.

    It’s an American law against a Canadian citizen. As much as I hate spam, I truly hope they won’t get him otherwise this will be the beginning of something very, very bad.

  • Heri November 25, 2008

    Denis, I agree although I do not know the legalities behind CAN-SPAM. i don’t know if it’s just a U.S. thing or if other countries like Canada also signed it.

  • Montreal Tech Watch November 25, 2008

    Facebook awarded $873 million in spam case against Montreal spammer http://tinyurl.com/6emll7

  • 25 Most Shocking Crimes in Social Media History | Social Networking Blog - SociableBlog.com February 04, 2009

    [...] Facebook vs. Montreal spammer: In November 2008, Facebook won its CAN-SPAM lawsuit against Canadian Adam Guerbuez, a spammer who clogged account holders’ pages with pornographic websites and other unsavory pitches. Guerbuez and the 26 others accused of spamming Facebook users were found guilty, and Facebook was awarded $873 million. [...]

You must be logged in to post a comment.

blog comments powered by Disqus