‘Spam King’ pleads guilty to sending more than 27M Facebook messages

Sanford Wallace, the so-called “Spam King” of Facebook, has plead guilty to sending in excess of 27 million spam messages using the social network.

You may not be familiar with the name Sanford Wallace, but there’s a decent chance he’s sent you a message a time or two.

Wallace, 47, acknowledged accessing Facebook’s computer network in order to send the spam messages on three occasions between November 2008 and February 2009. According to reports from Bloomberg and the Associated Press, Wallace will only face a maximum of three years behind bars, not the possible 10 years carried by the intentional damage charges. Every click on these links redirected users to websites that paid Wallace for the generated traffic.

Wallace, who also goes by the nickname “Spamford”, was indicted by a federal grand in July 2011 on charges of compromising roughly 500,000 Facebook accounts.

The courts have fined Wallace more than $4 million so far, and Facebook won $711 million in damages as a result of a 2009 lawsuit. He was released on bond and is scheduled to be sentenced on 7 December by US District Judge Edward J. Davila in San Jose.

Wallace’s lawyer, William Burns, didn’t immediately return a call after hours seeking comment on the plea.