Canadian spammer fined $1 billion

[Tony The Bot]

Canadian spammer fined $1 billion
Posted via Canadian Content

Montreal man Adam Guerbuez has been ordered last week to pay more than $1 billion in fines to Facebook after a Quebec Superior Court upheld a California decision in 2008 for spamming over 4 million profiles.

The U.S. judge fined Guerbuez US$100 plus another US$100 in punitive damages for each of the spam messages he posted on Facebook users' walls, totalling 4,366,386. The fine was originally over US$870 million which equalled $1,086,928,721 in Canadian funds at the time the judgement was rendered.

The Quebec man complains, however, that he was unable to defend himself in a foreign land saying "For a major trial like that, it would have been at least $100,000. They decided to issue a judgement by default and bring it to a Quebec judge to get it enforced here."

Unfortunately for Facebook, they probably won't see very much from Mr. Guerbuez as he filed for bankruptcy in August.

Without feeling any shame, Guerbuez claims this judgement and the news surrounding it has been a blessing in disguise, "People know what I'm capable of doing: large-scale marketing" he says. He also claims there's a possible book and movie deal coming out of this fiasco.

According to Cisco Systems, the top spam-producing countries in 2009 were Brazil, the United States, India and South Korea.


Original Article: http://www.canadiancontent.net/commtr/canadian-spammer-fined-1-billion_998.html

 

[Praxius]

"Without feeling any shame, Guerbuez claims this judgement and the news surrounding it has been a blessing in disguise, "People know what I'm capable of doing: large-scale marketing" he says."

Nice way to spin it.... you can call it "Large-Scale Marketing" if you want..... it's still considered spam and it was still obviously illegal, which is why he was fined what he was fined in the first place.

So unless those "People" he speaks of wish to hire a spammer who will no doubt come back to bite them in their ass when the police come looking to fine them for spamming people's email & facebook accounts..... I wouldn't expect a lot of people bashing down his doors to hire him.

Except perhaps more spammers and hackers.

Either way, I think he got what he deserves and if he can not pay that fine then he should be tossed in jail for a few years.

There's no logic in punishing someone if the punishment in question can not be enforced..... if he can not pay that money and if it's unlikely nobody will ever see that money paid off in their lifetime.... then obviously justice wasn't served and he wasn't punished.

Throw him in jail for about..... oh, I dunno..... 5 years, and that should do it.

 

[shadowshiv]

Unfortunately for Facebook, they probably won't see very much from Mr. Guerbuez as he filed for bankruptcy in August.

Without feeling any shame, Guerbuez claims this judgement and the news surrounding it has been a blessing in disguise, "People know what I'm capable of doing: large-scale marketing" he says. He also claims there's a possible book and movie deal coming out of this fiasco.

Any money that he gets from a book and/or movie deal would probably go towards the money he owes to Facebook, so I don't see how he can see it as a "blessing in disguise". He was the one who spammed 4 million accounts, and he cries about how unfair it is? I feel NO sympathy towards him at all.

 

[wulfie68]

Any money that he gets from a book and/or movie deal would probably go towards the money he owes to Facebook, so I don't see how he can see it as a "blessing in disguise". He was the one who spammed 4 million accounts, and he cries about how unfair it is? I feel NO sympathy towards him at all.

It should go to pay off his fines/compensate Facebook but if he can hide behind a bankruptcy I don't know how it would fall out.

 

[Praxius]

Any money that he gets from a book and/or movie deal would probably go towards the money he owes to Facebook, so I don't see how he can see it as a "blessing in disguise". He was the one who spammed 4 million accounts, and he cries about how unfair it is? I feel NO sympathy towards him at all.

Agreed.... it's not like he's that mentally deficient to not understand that what he was going to do was illegal.

Kind of reminds me of a kid I went to high school with some years back. He'd sit right beside another kid who always had his hand raised just to say something stupid and one day he turned to him and slugged him in the shoulder..... despite the fact that both of them sat front and centre to the teacher's desk. Of course the teacher saw the whole thing, certainly heard it and heard the other kid yell "ow, geez what the hell?!"

The teacher just gawked at him in wonder as to why the hell he'd do that right in front of her when he knew he'd get caught.

She yelled at him to go to the office and he just sat there looking completely dumbfounded and innocent with his shrugged shoulders and surprised look on his face, saying "What? I didn't do anything."

She flipped and described exactly what just happened, what he did and why he's being sent to the office..... and he just continued to look shocked and responded "What the heck are you talking about? I didn't do anything! Oh my God, this is unfair! You're always picking on me!"

You could hear him pleading his innocence all the way down the hall, even though the teacher, I and everybody else in the class saw him do it, heard him do it and a number of us laughed while he did it too......

That was his thing for some reason.... he'd purposely do something he knew damn well was wrong and knew he'd get caught, but then play the innocence and unjustly accused card every single time.

What's the moral of the story?

I like stories.

 

[Unforgiven]

What happened to laws against keeping the proceeds and profiting from a criminal activity?

 

[shadowshiv]

What happened to laws against keeping the proceeds and profiting from a criminal activity?

Good point. Bankruptcy or not, he should have to pay what he owes because of this.