SAN JOSE, Calif. (AP) — Federal prosecutors say a Las Vegas man has been sentenced to 2 ½ years in prison for sending more than 27 million spam messages to Facebook users and disobeying a court order not to access Facebook.

 

Federal prosecutors say Tuesday a federal judge in San Jose, California on Monday also ordered 47-year-old Sanford Wallace to pay $310,000 in restitution.

 

Last year Wallace admitted to accessing about 500,000 Facebook accounts and sending unsolicited ads disguised as friend posts over a three-month span.

 

Prosecutors say Wallace collected Facebook user account information by sending "phishing" messages that tricked users of the social networking site into providing their passwords.

 

According to the indictment, he then used that information to log into their accounts and post spam messages on their friends' Facebook walls.