Man Must Pay Facebook $873M For Penis Pill Ads
A Canadian man must pay Facebook for spamming user walls.
Tuesday a Canadian man was ordered by a Quebec court to pay $873 million USD (over $1 billion in Canadian currency) to Facebook for hacking into user accounts and posting explicit messages on user walls.
The fine was originally set in place by the California court system back in 2008. Adam Guerbuez was charged $100 USD in damages and $100 USD in punitive damages for each of the alleged 4,366,386 million spam messages which Facebook claimed to have contained ads for penis enlargement pills and other ailments. However Guerbuez failed to pay Facebook and the case was moved to the Quebec Superior Court for local enforcement.
"I don't spam," Guerbuez said after the Canadian courts ruled again in Facebook's favor on Tuesday. "I've never admitted any guilt on anything they accused [of] me, and I won't."
He said that he originally didn't contest the California suit because the fight would have cost too much. "It would have cost me a fortune to defend myself in a foreign jurisdiction," he added. "For a major trial like that, it would have been at least $100,000. They decided to issue a judgment by default and bring it to a Quebec judge to get it enforced here."
But now he owes $873 million... or maybe not. Guerbuez filed for bankruptcy back in August and listed Facebook as one of the creditors. Although he denies spamming all those Facebook accounts, he seemingly admitted to his mass-marketing skills, calling the whole fiasco a blessing in disguise. In fact, the drama has brought attention to his business as an internet marketer.
"People know what I'm capable of doing: large-scale marketing," he said.
Guerbuez claims that a potential book deal and a movie deal are in the works. He won't be able to promote on Facebook however, as he's been banned from the site.
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Kevin started taking PCs apart in the 90s when Quake was on the way and his PC lacked the required components. Since then, he’s loved all things PC-related and cool gadgets ranging from the New Nintendo 3DS to Android tablets. He is currently a contributor at Digital Trends, writing about everything from computers to how-to content on Windows and Macs to reviews of the latest laptops from HP, Dell, Lenovo, and more.
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nforce4max Good heavens aren't they getting greedy enough? That is more than most people will ever see in their entire life times unless he got a printing press.Reply -
the_krasno Marketing? Is that what people call spam this days? I hope they lock the guy up.Reply
As I hope they lock up every single Nigerian prince that emails me... -
hokkdawg I find it absolutely hilarious reading an article about prosecuting a man for advertising on Facebook, while I just had to scroll past a forum troll advertising for Air Jordans and Oakley sunglasses on Tom's Hardware...Reply
Tom's Hardware, yer sittin' on a gold mine! :P -
gekko668 Next stop Tom's Hardware sue guy for mass market spamming on comment section.Reply
Seriously Tom you need to something about that. -
sargentchimera A potential book and movie deal? About him!? The spammer?! WTF how is that movie-able, or maybe did I just read it wrong?... hope I did...Reply -
Darkerson hokkdawgI find it absolutely hilarious reading an article about prosecuting a man for advertising on Facebook, while I just had to scroll past a forum troll advertising for Air Jordans and Oakley sunglasses on Tom's Hardware...Tom's Hardware, yer sittin' on a gold mine!hokkdawgI find it absolutely hilarious reading an article about prosecuting a man for advertising on Facebook, while I just had to scroll past a forum troll advertising for Air Jordans and Oakley sunglasses on Tom's Hardware...Tom's Hardware, yer sittin' on a gold mine!Go get those bastards. Maybe they'll think twice about spamming their cheap knockoffs on here after that! LMAO!Reply -
victorintelr I think this is a little bit ridiculous:Reply
If he ends up having to pay the 873 Million dollars, unless he becomes the CEO of who knows how many big companies to collect all the money he'll never be able to pay it back....and they know it.
I hope the guys that post those spam comments will get the message (nahh...not really)