Former Spam King Must Pay MySpace $6 Million: Proves Black Hat SEO Doesn’t Pay

Like Nancy Reagan: Just Say No To Black Hat Search Engine Optimization

Not unlike Star Wars, every career has good and bad seeds. Hiring ethically principled companies (commonly called: white hat search engine optimization services) makes sense for your brand, your bottom line, and your organization’s soul. Yahoo News highlights a recent black hat court judgement involving spamming on MySpace:

Scott Richter of Westminster, Colorado, must pay MySpace $4.8 million in damages and $1.2 million in legal fees, a court-appointed arbitrator ruled on Thursday.

Richter, who was once accused of pumping out more than 100 million spam messages per day, had been sued by MySpace in January 2007 in connection with an August 2006 campaign in which MySpace members were hit with unsolicited messages promoting a Web site called Consumerpromotionscenter.com. The messages were sent from phished MySpace accounts, according to the findings of Philip Boesch, the court-appointed arbitrator in the case.

Lesson Learned from the MySpace Black Hat Court Debacle:

First, don’t do black hat and unethical SEO and don’t hire black hats.

Second, seek out ethically guided SEO to ensure your marketing dollar is maximized, your customers are happy, and your brand isn’t ruined.

Thoughts?