Facebook, Inc. v. Jeremi Fisher

Facebook was a social-networking website with millions of users. Facebook users had to register and agree to Facebook’s terms of use. Facebook users were given a unique username and password to access their profiles and the profiles of their Facebook friends. Users could communicate with each other by email or by postings on a user’s wall. Facebook’s terms of use prohibited data mining to gain access to users’ login information, posting of unsolicited advertising, circulation of unsolicited advertising by mail, providing false personal information or misrepresenting oneself, or using another person’s account without Facebook’s authorization. Facebook, Inc. (plaintiff) sought a temporary restraining order (TRO) against Jeremi Fisher and others (collectively, Fisher) (defendants) to enjoin them from engaging in phishing and spamming activities against Facebook and its users. Facebook alleged that after engaging in substantial investigative activity, it had discovered that Fisher had sent to multiple Facebook users emails that appeared to be legitimate messages. The emails asked the users to click on a link to a phishing website that tricked users into disclosing their login information. Fisher then used the login information to send spam to the users’ friends. Some of the spam messages directed users to websites that paid Fisher for each user visit. As the cycle repeated, the number of compromised Facebook accounts increased.