'Spam King' arrested over Facebook hack

A man nicknamed the "Spam King" has been arrested for allegedly hacking into more than 500,000 Facebook accounts to send about 27 million unsolicited messages.

Sanford Wallace, 43, who is also known as "Spamford Wallace" for his spamming exploits, was arrested in Las Vegas on Thursday. He is accused of sending messages from users' accounts that would invite friends to click on a link to a page designed to trick them into giving up personal information.

Facebook sued him two years ago over claims that he had been sending unwanted messages and wall posts to people on the social network. He faces up to three years in jail and a $250,000 fine for each of the six fraud charges and up to 10 years in jail.