Facebook announced it filed three separate lawsuits against spammers this week.
The lawsuits, filed in federal court in San Jose, Calif., accuse Steven Richter, Jason Swan and Max Bounty of violating Computer Fraud and Abuse Act, the CAN-SPAM Act and other state and federal laws. Facebook is seeking compensatory, statutory and punitive damages from each.
“According to our complaints, the defendants, among other things, represented that in order to qualify for certain fake or deceptive offers, people had to spam their friends, sign up for automatic mobile phone subscription services or provide other information,” according to Facebook. “We claim that by doing this, they violated the U.S. Computer Fraud and Abuse Act, the Controlling the Assault of Non-Solicited Pornography and Marketing Act (CAN-SPAM), and other state and federal laws.”
Facebook has taken spammers to court in the past. In 2008, the company won a massive judgment against Adam Guerbuez and Atlantis Blue Capital totaling $873 million. In addition, Facebook won a $711 million judgment last year against Sanford Wallace.
“We will press on with enforcement and collection efforts against spammers and fraudsters, and we’re committed to applying continuous legal pressure to send a strong message to spammers that they’re not welcome on Facebook,” the company stated. “Stay tuned as our push against spammers and scammers escalates over the next month, year and beyond. We have other actions pending, and there will be more to come.”