MySpace Brings Phishing and Spam Suit against Sanford Wallace

LOS ANGELES--(BUSINESS WIRE)--MySpace announced today that it filed suit against Sanford Wallace for violations of state and federal laws including the CAN-SPAM Act and California's anti-spam and anti-phishing statutes. The suit, filed in United States District Court in Los Angeles on Friday, seeks a permanent injunction barring Wallace and his affiliated companies from the MySpace site in addition to unspecified monetary damages.

“We will continue to aggressively protect our members through a combination of legal action, law enforcement pursuit, and technological enhancements.”

MySpace alleges in the suit that beginning in October 2006 Wallace implemented a phishing scheme to falsely gain access to MySpace user profiles. Wallace created profiles, groups, and forums on MySpace to direct users through deceptive means to websites owned and/or operated by Wallace. Wallace also spammed thousands of users with unwanted advertisements that promoted his websites.

"Individuals who try to spam or phish our members are not welcome on MySpace," said Hemanshu Nigam, chief security officer for MySpace. "We will continue to aggressively protect our members through a combination of legal action, law enforcement pursuit, and technological enhancements."

Wallace, the self-proclaimed “King of Spam,” has been previously sued (either directly or through entities that he owned or controlled) by America Online, Concentric Network Corp., CompuServe, and the Federal Trade Commission (FTC). In 2006, Wallace was forced to pay more than $4 million in a lawsuit brought by the FTC for the actions of Smartbot.net.

MySpace's suit against Wallace is the latest in a series of efforts MySpace has taken over the last two years to combat spam, phishing, and other misuse of the MySpace site. MySpace's successes in this area include:

• Filing suit against Scott Richter, for violations of state and federal laws including the CAN-SPAM Act and California's anti-spam statute;
• Securing a favorable settlement in a federal suit against a distributor of an authorized bot that facilitated spamming on the site;

• Obtaining a settlement including injunctive relief and the payment of monetary damages in another federal suit against the sponsor of an affiliate program that was promoted by spammers;

• Filing a multi-million dollar suit against TGLO/The Globe for spamming MySpace users and violating the MySpace terms of use agreement;

• Assisting law enforcement in taking criminal action against Samy (aka "Samy Is My Hero") and the operators of "MySpace Plus" for alleged criminal activity related to spam, unauthorized bots, and/or phishing on the site. Both Samy and the operators of "MySpace Plus" pled guilty and were sentenced in Los Angeles Superior Court.

About MySpace.com

MySpace, a Fox Interactive Media company, is the premier lifestyle portal for connecting with friends, discovering popular culture, and making a positive impact on the world. By integrating web profiles, blogs, instant messaging, e-mail, music streaming, music videos, photo galleries, classified listings, events, groups, college communities, and member forums, MySpace has created a connected community. As the second ranked destination in terms of page views(a), MySpace is the most widely-used and highly regarded site of its kind and is committed to providing the highest quality member experience. MySpace will continue to innovate with new features that allow its members to express their creativity and share their lives, both online and off. MySpace’s international network includes localized community sites in the United States, the United Kingdom, Japan, France, Germany, Australia, Ireland, Spain, Italy, Mexico, Canada, and New Zealand.

(a) Among the top 2000 domains comScore Media Metrix, February 2007. For more information on comScore Networks, please go to http://www.comscore.com.