Facebook Suing Alleged Bieber Sex Spammer
Social network files complaint about alleged mass spam campaign
Facebook is taking the fight to a man it claims has posted a significant amount of spam across the site, including links to a fake Justin Bieber and Selina Gomez sex tape.
In a complaint filed in the US District Court of the Northern District of California, Christopher Peter Tarquini, of the US state of New Jersey, was accused of sending out various links to purported pornographic images.
When clicked on, those links were automatically shared with the victims’ Facebook friends. The victims were also forwarded on to a site where their visit would generate money for the scammers, according to the filing.
Facebook mad over spam
Tarquini and his colleagues were also said to have created scripts to get hold of access tokens of users and hack their accounts.
“In short, Facebook users who clicked on Tarquini’s deceptive messages immediately, and without their knowledge or consent, became unknowing participants in and victims of Tarquini’s scam,” the filing read, according to the Naked Security blog.
Facebook said it had pursued Tarquini itself, but he continued to carry out his scam operations, even though he recognised he was to blame.
“Tarquini responded to the March 11 letter and admitted that he had created the Jacked script that was used in the Bieber/Gomez spam campaign; admitted that he had distributed the script to a number of associates; and admitted that the Bieber/Gomez spam campaign redirected users to a non-Facebook website,” the filing read.
Facebook members have been advised to not trust suspicious-looking posts, even if they are from friends.
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