Facebook ‘spam king’ faces 3 years in prison

FILE - Sanford Wallace, president of Cyber Promotions, poses with his computer and cans of Spam processed meat in Dresher, Pa, in this May 8, 1997 file photo. Wallace, the self-proclaimed "Spam King," pleaded not guilty during an initial court appearance Thursday Aug. 4, 2011 after being indicted July 6 on six counts of electronic mail fraud, three counts of intentional damage to a protected computer and two counts of criminal contempt. The indictment filed in San Jose federal court said Wallace compromised about 500,000 Facebook accounts between November 2008 and March 2009 by sending massive amounts of spam through the company's servers on three separate occasions. (AP Photo/Dan Loh)

Photograph by Dan Loh — AP

So-called “Spam King” Sanford Wallace has admitted to using around a half-million Facebook accounts to send more than 27 million unsolicited messages on the social network, Bloomberg reports.

Wallace pled guilty to charges of fraud and criminal contempt; he faces up to three years in prison and a $250,000 fine for his activities.

The notorious spammer was found to have violated a court order banning him from Facebook by logging onto the site while onboard a Virgin Airlines flight in 2009. He violated the court order again in 2011 by maintaining a profile under the name “David Sinful-Saturdays Fredericks,” according to an FBI press release.

Wallace has been a pest for consumers for decades. Throughout the mid-90s, he spammed people through fax, then through e-mail, according to Ars Technica. He gained such notoriety that his critics named him “Spamford”–a domain he later registered, despite protests from SPAM foodstuff maker Hormel. He also dabbled in spyware and MySpace spamming, which resulted in a lawsuit in 2007.