MySpace gets millions for spam attacks
Social networking site, MySpace, has been awarded millions of dollars after a campaign of spam targeted its users.
A US court awarded it $230 million (£118 million) after Sanford Wallace and Walter Rines, the men behind the junk mail, failed to attend the hearing.
Hemanshu Nigam, MySpace chief security officer, told Associated Press the verdict would deter other spammers.
"Anybody who’s been thinking about engaging in spam are going to say ‘Wow, I better not go there,’" he said.
Mr Wallace was formerly head of Cyber Promotions, a company that sent out 30 million junk emails each day.
He operated phishing scams to use the network’s sites to distribute his messages, some of which, MySpace said, were linked to pornographic content.
The figure decided by the court was calculated under the 2003 US CAN Spam law, which entitles MySpace $100 (£50) for each violation and triple when spam is proved to be sent deliberately.
