Facebook spammer fined $873 million

Spammers beware.

Facebook has won a judgment of nearly a billion dollars—$873,277,200, to be exact—against a spammer who used the social networking service to illegally advertise his wares. California judge Jeremy Fogel ruled late last week that Adam Guerbuez was guilty of violating the 2003 CAN-SPAM Act, and that he should be required to pay statutory damages, aggravated statutory damages, and attorneys' fees to Facebook by mid-December. Even Facebook's lawyers don't believe they will be able to collect, however.

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In a statement sent to VentureBeat, the company admitted that it probably won't be able to get much out of Guerbuez. "It's unlikely that Guerbuez and Atlantis Blue Capital could ever honor the judgment rendered against them (though we will certainly collect everything we can)," said Facebook. "But we are confident that this award represents a powerful deterrent to anyone and everyone who would seek to abuse Facebook and its users."