MySpace has won a $234 million judgment over junk messages sent to its members in what is believed to be the largest anti-spam award ever, The Associated Press has learned.
A federal judge ruled against two of the Internet’s most prominent spam defendants, Sanford Wallace and Walter Rines, after the two failed to show up at a court hearing.
Rines and Wallace worked in concert to create their own MySpace accounts or take over existing ones by stealing passwords.
They then e-mailed other MySpace members asking them to check out a cool video or another cool site. When you go there, they were making money trying to sell you something or making money based on hits or trying to sell ring tones.
It would be a surprise, though, if MySpace ever collected. The giant judgments are all defaults, which means they don’t necessarily even know how to find the spammer.
There was no telephone listing for Wallace in the Las Vegas area, where he is last known to live. Service was disconnected for two listed numbers for Rines in Stratham, N.H., his last known address; a third number was unlisted.