Sanford Wallace, aka “Spam King,” or “Spamford” - a notorious spam king - is finally paying for all that spam. Wallace is president of Cyber Promotions and now he and his partner have the distinction of getting one of largest anti-spam judgments. The court has ruled that they owe MySpace about $230 million in damages.

U.S. District Judge Audrey B. Collins in Los Angeles ruled in MySpace’s favor Monday. Sanford Wallace and Walter Rines did not show up for the court hearing.

While MySpace may never actually see the money, they hope that it will deter other spammers. Because, obviously you can make a lot of money off spamming and even if you get caught still get to keep the money.

Wallace was responsible for sending 30 million junk e-mails a day in the 1990s and was sued by leading Internet service providers (ISPs) like AOL. In 2006 he had a $4 million federal judgment against him for spyware.

Wallace stole passwords to MySpace accounts and automatically emailed the friends recommending another web site or video. When they got to the new site the company made money from ads or affiliate deals.

What’s next for Wallace? A few years ago he moved to Vegas (good choice) and his numbers are unlisted. Here’s my favorite line: “There was no telephone listing for Wallace in the Las Vegas area, to which he moved in 2004 to pursue night club promotion work.”

“Collins awarded the amounts sought by MySpace: $157.4 million jointly against Rines and Wallace and an additional $63.4 million against Rines under CAN-SPAM — plus $1.5 million more against the pair under California’s anti-phishing law and $4.7 million in attorneys fees. MySpace said it was entitled to another $3 million from Rines and Wallace under a different section of CAN-SPAM.”

Next up for MySpace: they are going after another high profile spammer, Scott Richter.

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If you buy Radically Transparent–or download chapter 1 for free–you’ll learn how JetBlue’s reputation was severely damaged when it stranded passengers for hours in February 2007. The company had to do a lot of apologizing and reputation repair–including the creation of a YouTube video and a passenger bill of rights.

The crap just hit the jet turbine again.

This time, JetBlue is accused of making a passenger give-up his seat and instead spend part of the flight sitting in the bathroom.

Gokhan Mutlu, of Manhattan’s Inwood section, says in court papers the pilot told him to “go ‘hang out’ in the bathroom” about 90 minutes into the San Diego to New York flight because the flight attendant complained that the “jump seat” she was assigned was uncomfortable, the lawsuit said.

Mutlu is suing JetBlue for $2 million, probably because of the way he was treated and the dangers he faced:

When Mutlu expressed reluctance to go sit in the bathroom, the pilot, who was not named in the lawsuit, told him that “he was the pilot, that this was his plane, under his command that (Mutlu) should be grateful for being on board,” the lawsuit said.

The aircraft hit turbulence and passengers were directed to return to their seats, but “the plaintiff had no seat to return to, sitting on a toilet stool with no seat belts,” court papers say.

You might think, “we’re only hearing one side of the story here.” And, you would be right. JetBlue has declined to comment about the lawsuit–standard practice for any company subject to litigation. But, this incident happened almost 3 months ago!!

Surely the passenger complained to JetBlue first, before filing his lawsuit. Surely, JetBlue should have realized that–even if the passenger embellished the details–news of this kind would hurt the company’s reputation.

Reputation management begins the moment you make contact with a customer. It begins during the transaction and immediately afterwards. It does not begin simply because a customer decides to make a public complaint.

JetBlue, wake up! What might have only needed a personal apology and a free flight voucher to make amends, will now take legal fees, maybe $2 million in damages, and many wasted hours repairing your reputation.

(via)

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JetBlue Sued for $2 Million; Flushing Reputation Down the Toilet, Again!