MySpace wins round vs. spam

NEW YORK - The popular online hangout MySpace has won a $230million judgment over junk messages sent to its members in what isbelieved to be the largest anti-spam award ever .

A federal judge in Los Angeles ruled against Sanford Wallace andhis partner, Walter Rines, after the two failed to show up at acourt hearing, MySpace told The Associated Press on Tuesday.

Wallace earned the monikers "Spam King" and "Spamford" as head ofa company that sent as many as 30 million junk e-mails a day in the1990s. He left that company, Cyber Promotions, following lawsuitsfrom leading Internet service providers such as Time Warner Inc.'sAOL, only to re-emerge in a spyware case that led to a $4 millionfederal judgment against him in 2006.

"MySpace has zero tolerance for those who attempt to actillegally on our site," said MySpace's chief security officer,Hemanshu Nigam. "We remain committed to punishing those who violatethe law and try to harm our members."

Rines and Wallace created their own MySpace accounts or took overexisting ones by stealing passwords through "phishing" scams, Nigamsaid.

They then e-mailed other MySpace members, he said, "asking themto check out a cool video or another cool site. When you (got)there, they were making money trying to sell you something or makingmoney based on hits or trying to sell ring tones."

MySpace said the pair sent more than 730,000 messages to MySpacemembers, many made to look like they were coming from trustedfriends, giving them an air of legitimacy. E ach violation entitlesMySpace to $100 in damages, tripled when conducted "willfully andknowingly."

The judgment is a big victory for MySpace, although serviceproviders often have a tough time collecting such awards.