Facebook sues three over alleged spam, phishing

By

Three alleged to have propagated wall post spam.

Facebook this week filed a lawsuit against three men allegedly responsible for phishing and spamming members.


Since October 2008, the defendants — Jeremi Fisher, Philip Porembski and Ryan Shimeall — have been using Facebook accounts under their control to bombard some of the social networking site's 350 million active users with "wall posts" that contained links for fake goods and services, such as colon cleansers, Macy's gift cards and debt solutions, according to the lawsuit.

The defendants were able to access legitimate member accounts to deliver the phony messages, likely by phishing users of their login credentials, the complaint said. Facebook has spent more than US$5,000 responding to the spam, which appears to come from friends the recipients trust.

"The spam messages do not properly identify the initiators of the messages, nor do they provide clear or conspicuous notice that the messages are advertisements, information on how recipients can opt-out of future messages, or a valid address that recipients can use to contact the defendants," the lawsuit said. "The large volume of spam — with almost three-fourths of it being sent in approximately the last three months alone — has tainted and continues to taint the Facebook experience for the affected Facebook users."

The defendants earned money by registering as affiliates and receiving money each time a victim clicks on one of the spam links and is redirected through a series of websites.

Facebook, which is suing under US state and federal anti-spam laws, is seeking a court injunction that prohibits the accused spammers from delivering any more junk messages, in addition to unspecified monetary damages.

In October, a U.S. District Court in San Jose awarded Facebook $711 million after being victimised by prolific spammer Sanford Wallace.

See original article on scmagazineus.com

Got a news tip for our journalists? Share it with us anonymously here.
Copyright © SC Magazine, US edition
Tags:

Most Read Articles

India's alarm over Chinese spying rocks CCTV makers

India's alarm over Chinese spying rocks CCTV makers

Victoria's Secret pulls down website amid security incident

Victoria's Secret pulls down website amid security incident

China blamed after cyberattack hits Czech Republic

China blamed after cyberattack hits Czech Republic

Cyber companies hope to untangle weird hacker codenames

Cyber companies hope to untangle weird hacker codenames

Log In

  |  Forgot your password?