Facebook & Myspace Taking Some Spammers To Court 96
kevinqtipreedy writes "Social networks like Facebook and Myspace are now bringing spammers into the court systems in new attempts to put a stop to it. Although spammers rarely show up in court and the suits do not always lead to monetary reward, companies are hoping the 'chilling effect' will help in the effort to curb spam."
Working (Score:5, Interesting)
Actually, my spam on myspace has dropped to nill for the past few months. It used to be everytime I logged in there was 3-4 hot girls that wanted to be my friend which was of course just an advertisement for a pay site. I always marked them as spam (sometimes their account had already been removed by the time I got out to clearing up my friends request). I doubt that it's these lawsuits but they definally did something (probally limiting the amount of new friend requests you can make on a new account per day or something) that did the trick.
What about their users (Score:1, Interesting)
Oft companies make some pretty dumb decisions. Sure this may stop a couple of spam messages out of the probable millions.
What about their users? How comfortable will this make them when they know they are visiting a site that legally prosecutes people acting within their right?
I don't think this will be a revenue generator.
Re:This happens constantly on the Facebook wall. (Score:3, Interesting)
Thats interesting.
I have not seen this kind of thing yet (I guess I have smart friends ;o)). Are you saying that these people actually have their username/password compromised or is there some kind of facebook app that when installed can initiate this kind of activity?
The Price of Working with Microsoft (Score:4, Interesting)
When I suggested to Mark in 2004 that he make Facebook the largest spam-free e-mail system in the world by continuing to require user authentication, he said that he didn't want to compete with Microsoft. I didn't know at the time that Microsoft would become a large investor. It seems now that for Facebook, Inc., taking that investment has come at a price, which may be minuscule by comparison in monetary terms, but is still real. We're still desperately in need of a reliable messaging system that works, which I think probably means that it needs to be closed.
Aaron
Authoritas: One Student's Harvard Admissions and the Founding of the Facebook Era [aarongreenspan.com]
Re:This happens constantly on the Facebook wall. (Score:3, Interesting)
Maybe instead of retribution for your friends stupidity you should try educating them.
I've only received a few of these wall post spams on Facebook, then again I only allow a select few to be my friends.
Anyone have a link that describes how a Facebook account get compromised in easy to understand terms? You know something we can pass on to our less technologically inclined friends should this happen to them.
Re:Self Despamming (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:ok how about... (Score:2, Interesting)
This issue has nothing to do with man/women differences nor the target audience. The difference between spam and "regular" adds is that spam kicks into your personal communication ways, like your e-mail and even your regular mail, without you wanting it there and for no particular reason.
Of course you can ask why there are so many penis enlargement spam mails on your Inbox (at some point I was beginning to think that someone thought MY penis was too short...), and that probably has more to do with a "socio-economical study" of the people who are willing to click on just about any link. I mean those kids that spend their whole life on the computer gaming or just doing nothing in cyber-particular. They're usually male, aren't they? Aren't we?
Another difference is the fact that on TV or magazines or whatever mass-communication device, it's the company that runs the device the one that includes the adds. In spam, you have hotmail working it's ass off to give you (or try...) a decent service and then you have those who take advantage of it and, well... spam.