- Jan 24, 2011
- 9,378
- Sanford Wallace sent more than 27million spam emails to Facebook users
- He accessed 500,000 Facebook accounts between Nov 2008 and Mar 2009
- Facebook obtained a court order banning him but he soon breached it
- Wallace, who began spamming in 1990s, dubbed himself the Spam King
- He has been banned from owning or using a computer without permission
A man who pioneered junk email has been jailed for two-and-a-half years for sending more than 27million spam messages to Facebook users.
Sanford Wallace, 47, from Las Vegas, had also disobeyed a court order banning him from Facebook.
A judge in San Jose, California also ordered Wallace to pay $310,000 and undergo mental health treatment and five years of probation once he is released from jail.
Judge Edward Davila also banned him from possessing or using any computer without the permission of his probation officer.
Wallace - who called himself the Spam King - was arrested in 2011 and had faced up to 40 years in jail and a fine of $2million.
Last year Wallace admitted accessing 500,000 Facebook accounts between November 2008 and March 2009 and sending unsolicited ads disguised as posts from friends over a three-month period.
Prosecutors say Wallace collected Facebook user account information by sending 'phishing' messages that tricked users of the social networking site into providing their passwords.
According to the indictment, he then used that information to log into their accounts and post spam messages on their friends' Facebook walls.
Read more: 'Spam King' who pioneered junk email is jailed for two years
