MySpace has won a lawsuit against notorious spammer Sanford (Spamford) Wallace. The social networking website gained a default judgment against Wallace after he failed to turn over documents or appear in court, CNet reports.

Wallace was sued in March 2007 over allegations he orchestrated a phishing scam designed to harvest MySpace login credentials. He was further accused of spamming messages to MySpace users designed to tempt them into visiting porn- and gambling-related websites. The scam began in late 2006 and netted at least $555,850, according to court papers from the US District Court in the Central District of California.

In May 2006, Wallace and his firm Smartbot.net were ordered by a federal court to pay fines of $4m over a spyware-related scam prosecuted by the Federal Trade Commission. As previously reported, FTC lawyers have asked a federal judge overseeing this settlement to find Wallace and his cohorts in contempt for violating the terms of the settlement agreement. Whether the MySpace settlement will strengthen their hand remains unclear, but attempts to force spammers and black hat crackers like Wallace to turn over their ill-gotten gains are notoriously difficult. ®

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