Judge Slaps Facebook Spammer with $873 Million Judgment

Facebook today won an $873 million judgment against a Canadian spammer who spammed the online site with sexually explicit messages. Court records indicate the spammer, Adam Gurebuez of Montreal, has been on the run since Facebook sued him several months ago.

A Facebook spokesman said they hope the large judgment will help scare off other spammers who might also be tempted to spam the large site with over 120 million registered users. "Everyone who participates constructively in Facebook should feel confident that we are fighting hard to protect you against spam and other online nuisances," Max Kelly, Facebook's director of security, wrote Monday on the company's blog.

"We've all experienced spam -- those unwanted and, sometimes, inappropriate marketing messages," said Facebook director of security Max Kelly and deputy general counsel Mark Howitson in an e-mailed statement. "The bad guys behind those messages are always looking to find new ways to annoy people and Facebook's users have been among those targeted. We don't take this affront to our users lying down."