Facebook launches legal action
against an alleged spammer
suspected of posting fake links to
a supposed sex tape of Justin
Bieber and Selena Gomez.
Court papers filed in the US allege
Christopher Peter Tarquini was
behind the faked Facebook
messages.
Users who clicked the link in the
posts were redirected to sites that
allegedly paid Mr Tarquini for hits.
In addition, clicking led to the
posts being automatically shared
with users' Facebook friends.
In its legal complaints, Facebook
calls Mr Tarquini, of New Jersey, a
"recidivist" spammer who has
spent much of the past five years
crafting computer programs that
put "deceptive messages, images
and links" on the site's pages.
One of the most notorious of the
programs involved faked images
purporting to take people to a
video of actress Selena Gomez
with her partner, singer Justin
Bieber. Instead the link led to a
pop-up message asking for
access to a Facebook account
that then let an app take control
and spam the message out to a
person's friends.
Mr Tarquini persisted in targeting
the social network even after he
was told that his actions violated
Facebook's terms - his account
was shut down and he was told
never to use the site again, the
papers state.
Facebook said it had a confession
from Mr Tarquini that he had
written the program that took over
accounts and posted faked links.
Now it says it wants to be
reimbursed for the cost of
clearing up after Mr Tarquini and
for the work it has done to track
him down. In addition, it wants
him banned from ever using
Facebook again.
Mr Tarquini has yet to file any
legal response to Facebook's
claims.
The action against the alleged
spammer is the latest in a series
of steps Facebook has taken to
stem the flow of junk messages
passing through the network.
In September, Facebook won a $
3m (£1.8m) settlement against a
spam company that sent tens of
thousands of messages to users.
In addition, in 2009 Facebook was
awarded $711m after winning a
lawsuit against spammer Sanford
Wallace.
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