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An alleged spammer has agreed to stop deceptive tactics used to get people to click on the Facebook 'like' button and unknowingly spread commercial messages

Alleged "Likejackers" agree to stop Facebook spam

BY Josh Kerns  on May 7, 2012 @ 3:37 pm (Updated: 5:17 pm - 5/7/12 )

An alleged Facebook spammer has reached agreement with the Washington State Attorney General's office to stop 'likejacking' and other deceptive tactics from sites appearing to be recommended by friends.

Attorney General Rob McKenna says in a settlement announced Monday, Adscend Media LLC didn't admit fault but agreed to clearly identify messages as ads. The company is accused of what's been dubbed 'likejacking', where advertisers trick people into clicking the "like" button and unknowingly spreading sales pitches to friends.

"So now what we have is an enforceable court order so that if they or their ad network affiliates break it we can enforce it in court. And that's powerful," McKenna said in an interview with 97.3 KIRO FM.

Mckenna's office and Facebook separately sued Adscend Media's owners in January for creating deceptive posts.

Under the consent decree, the company also agreed to maintain a monitoring program for itself that includes random, daily analyses of their affiliates, and to pay $100,000 in attorney's costs and fees

Adscend also settled last week with Facebook in the separate lawsuit.

"So it is a clear message to the entire marketplace that the anti-spam law clearly applies to social media when it comes to advertising," McKenna said.

Josh Kerns, MyNorthwest.com Reporter
Josh Kerns is co-host of KIRO Radio's Seattle Sounds (Saturday nights 7-8) and a digital content producer for MyNorthwest.com.
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  • diveman wrote...
    Lifejackers
    May 7, 2012 5:45 pm
    Good for the A.G's office! Just to bad that Facebook didn't take the initiative in order to stop this on their users behalf...... but what do they care?
    { "Thumbs Up":"1","Thumbs Down":"-1" }
  • { "Thumbs Up":"1","Thumbs Down":"-1" }