Man Sentenced to 2 Years In Prison For Spamming People on Facebook

According to Bloomberg, 47-year-old Sanford Wallace is facing jail time for accessing about 500,000 Facebook accounts and sending 27 million spam messages to users in the span of three months. The San Jose federal judge who presided over the case also ordered Wallace to pay $310,000 in restitution.

Indictment records revealed that Wallace was able to collect users’ information and access their accounts by tricking them into providing their passwords via “phishing” techniques. He then posted online ads disguised as friends’ posts and sent spam messages using the accounts that he gathered.

After serving his prescribed term, Wallace will be required to undergo mental health treatment and five years of probation. U.S. District Court Judge Edward J. Davila also barred Wallace from using or owning any computers.

Wallace’s spamming activity has spanned decades dating back in the early ’90s. Even before the internet became popular, Wallace had been spamming people by sending junk faxes.