In its message to the journalists on Thursday, social networking site Facebook said that Judge Jeremy Fogel of US District Court judge in San Jose had awarded the company $711 million in damages, in an anti-spam lawsuit against Sanford Wallace - an infamous online marketer who is also called "Spamford" or "Spam King."

It was in February this year that Facebook sued Sanford, alleging that he had made use of phishing sites or other means to deceptively gain access to the accounts of the Facebook members, to dispense a phishing spam all over the network.

Along with awarding the damages to Facebook - the second-highest award brought under the federal anti-spam law CAN-SPAM; the federal court also said that it would refer Wallace for prosecution for criminal contempt of court as he had "willfully violated" a temporary restraining order and preliminary injunction issued in the case.

Among other restrictions that the court has imposed on Wallce, the "Spam King" has also been permanently prohibited from either accessing the Facebook Web site or creating a Facebook account.

Noting that the ruling against Wallace will dissuade other spammers, Sam O'Rourke - Facebook's associate general counsel - said: "While we don't expect to receive the vast majority of the award, we hope that this will act as a continued deterrent against these criminals. This is another important victory in our fight against spam."