PC Magazine reports that Facebook has filed three lawsuits against men they claim tricked Facebook users into signing up for mobile subscription through fraudulent means and spammed their friends with unwanted messages. The lawsuits were filed in a federal court in San Jose, California this week against Steven Richter, Jason Swan and Max Bounty.
In a blog post announcing the filings, Facebook alleges that the three “used Facebook to offer enticing, but non-existent products and services. According to our complaints, the defendants, among other things, represented that in order to qualify for certain fake or deceptive offers, people had to spam their friends, sign up for automatic mobile phone subscription services, or provide other information.”
In the lawsuits, Facebook is alleging that the three men broke the U.S. Computer Fraud and Abuse Act and the Controlling the Assault of Non-Solicited Pornography and Marketing Act (CAN-SPAM) along with other federal and state laws. Facebook has recently won cases totaling more than $1.5 billion against other spammers who abused Facebook’s privacy settings.
