Facebook Spammer Dinged for $873 Million

A federal court has awarded Facebook more than $873 million in damages against a spammer for showering the site's members with unsolicited advertisements that pushed sexually oriented products.

Judge Jeremy Fogel, of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, awarded statutory damages of more than $436.6 million against Adam Guerbuez and his company, Atlantis Blue Capital, and an equal sum in aggravated statutory damages.

The judgment also provides for Facebook to collect reasonable attorneys' fees and recover the costs of the lawsuit, and must file an application for this by Dec. 12.

Sam O'Rourke, Facebook's senior corporate counsel, told InternetNews.com that the social networking site does not expect to be able to collect anywhere near the amount awarded, but said the legal victory still sends a signal to all spammers that it will pursue them relentlessly.