Facebook: said it had won the 'second largest award in history' for an anti-spam action. Photograph: Chris Jackson/Getty

Facebook has been awarded $711.2m (£429.m) in damages after winning a case against Sanford Wallace, known as "Spamford", who sent mail and made posts without the permission of the social networking website's users.

The company has been pursuing legal action against Wallace, who last year was fined $230m for attacking MySpace users to send porn spam, in February.

In a statement Facebook said that the award, made at a court in California, was the "second largest in history" for an anti-spam action.

"While we don't expect to quickly collect the full amount, we'll work hard to get everything we can," said a Facebook spokesman. "We're confident that today's ruling will act as a powerful deterrent against those who would abuse Facebook and its users."