MySpace wins bumper spam payout

MySpace has won a $234m (£120m) legal judgement over junk messages sent to members of the social networking site.

Victory in the case was awarded to MySpace after Sanford Wallace and Walter Rines, the men behind the junk mail, failed to show up in court. The judgement is thought to be the largest ever given against senders of unsolicited commercial e-mail. However, anti-spam experts said MySpace had little chance of getting the cash it sought.

"Anybody who's been thinking about engaging in spam are going to say 'Wow, I better not go there,'" said Hemanshu Nigam, MySpace chief security officer to AP.

"Spammers don't want to be prosecuted. They are there to make money. It's our job to send a message to stop them," he added.

The two junk mailers worked together to create MySpace accounts or took over existing ones by stealing passwords.

Using these accounts the pair e-mailed MySpace members to make the mail look like it came from trusted friends. Typically the e-mail asked recipients to view a video or visit a website.

"When you go there, they were making money trying to sell you something or making money based on hits or trying to sell ringtones," said Mr Nigam.

MySpace said the duo sent 735,925 messages to its members.

In court papers, MySpace said sending the junk mail cost it money and generated complaints from hundreds of users. MySpace also said that some of the external websites contained pornographic material, potentially harming teenagers who use MySpace.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/7399868.stm