Quebec Facebook spammer charged 837 million

DSGamer64

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http://sync.sympatico.ca/news/quebec_spamm...k_873m/b9113566

Quebec spammer must pay Facebook $873M

CBC News
A Quebec man has been ordered to pay Facebook $873 million US after he bombarded its members with explicit spam messages.

The Quebec Superior Court has upheld a U.S. court ruling that ordered Adam Guerbuez and his company, Atlantis Blue Capital, to pay damages to the social networking giant.

In her Sept. 28 ruling, Quebec Judge Lucie Fournier ordered Guerbuez to pay $100 US in damages and $100 US in punitive damages for each of the 4,366,386 spam messages he sent to Facebook users in 2008.

Fournier also forbade Guerbuez from having a Facebook account or being involved in any way with the social-networking site ever again.

Guerbuez sent more than four million messages to Facebook users, praising the use of marijuana and drugs for erectile dysfunction.

Some of the messages contained sexually explicit material.

Facebook filed a civil case against him, and a California court ruled in 2008 that the Montreal man had violated U.S. electronic commerce laws. The court ordered him to pay $873 million US in damages.

The company then pursued Guerbuez to Quebec, where he lives, filing a motion in Quebec Superior Court asking it to recognize and enforce the U.S. ruling.

His lawyer, Éric Potvin, argued the damages were too excessive to fall under Quebec jurisdiction, but the judge disagreed.

Guerbuez filed for bankruptcy

Potvin said his client was disappointed by the latest ruling, but not surprised.

He said Guerbuez has filed for bankruptcy.

"The debt [to Facebook] will be part of his bankruptcy and paid with all of the other creditors," Potvin told CBC News.

Guerbuez wrote on his personal website Tuesday that he has been flooded with interview requests and planned to hold a news conference on Wednesday.

Facebook has previously said it hoped the case would discourage future spammers from using its site.



God, you have no idea how much I loath spammers and I have zero sympathy for this asshat. Now to just get rid of all the Chinese gold spammers in World of Warcraft and all the spammers on web forums and things will be good.
 

geoflcl

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$873 Million? Honestly, come on, now. I think a fine is most definitely in order for this man. If you're going to mess with the hugest social networking site in the universe, you're going to get shot down.

But... $873 Million? This guy will never see a penny of his own for the rest of his life.
ohmy.gif
 

GeekyGuy

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This is something I can (mostly) get behind. I won't make a judgment about the amount of restitution, but I am glad that a strong warning is finally going out to anyone else who traffics in this shit. Of course, it's something that should have been done 10 years ago. Better late than never, I suppose.

Now, for the people spreading viral software and scams. Line them all up, I say. Let them be hosed with honey and left to run naked on the African Savannah.
 

TM2-Megatron

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He's obviously never going to pay it, anyway. He'll be under this for the rest of his life, so tbh he'd probably be better off jumping off a bridge or something. Rulings like this accomplish nothing except ruining a person's life. Sure, spam is annoying, but who's actually hurt by it? Oh, those poor little tools posting on Facebook from their iPoser devices having to tap the screen a couple extra times to delete an ad about Erectile Dysfunction. Big fu**ing deal. Is it worth ruining someone's life over?
 

Overlord Nadrian

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Teehee. I spam the shit out of everyone's Facebook, yet they've never warned me. Heck, they even consider my name a 'common term', or otherwise 'a celebrity' (which led me to not being able to change anything about my name anymore, luckily I got them to fix that for me
biggrin.gif
).

Oh, and to be ontopic: I wholeheartedly agree with TM2.
 

Ethevion

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Overlord Nadrian said:
Teehee. I spam the shit out of everyone's Facebook, yet they've never warned me. Heck, they even consider my name a 'common term', or otherwise 'a celebrity' (which led me to not being able to change anything about my name anymore, luckily I got them to fix that for me
biggrin.gif
).

Oh, and to be ontopic: I wholeheartedly agree with TM2.

You didn't send explicit material.
smile.gif


I think the court made a good decision, now spammers begone!
 

heavyknight

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TM2-Megatron said:
Rulings like this accomplish nothing except ruining a person's life. Sure, spam is annoying, but who's actually hurt by it?
Spam can be laced with trojans, viruses, and other such things. Sure, there are antiviruses, but some are more 'advanced'.
So to answer the question, people actually can be hurt by it. Especially those who aren't as tech-savvy as others.
As well as explicit material. Sure, you can't shield kids forever, but it can lead to issues later in life. Kids are easily manipulated, etc, etc.

As well as, if it ruins one person's life, maybe others will learn from it. After all, it usually takes one death before people admit there's a problem or an issue.
 

Overlord Nadrian

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arpeejajo said:
You didn't send explicit material.
smile.gif
I tried doing that countless times but Facebook always blocks links to those things.

Actually, that makes me wonder how this guy was able to do it. And why he was so terribly overcharged for it.
 

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