A US-based advertising firm has promised to stop bombarding Facebook users with fraudulent messages in exchange for Washington State officials dropping a lawsuit that claimed the practice violated a federal antispam statute. Adscend Media also agreed to pay $100,000 in attorneys’ fees to settle charges Washington state’s attorney general brought in January claiming the misleading messages violated a federal law known as the CAN-SPAM, short for Controlling the Assault of Non-Solicited Pornography and Marketing. The settlement also requires Adscend Media to regularly monitor its affiliate partners to make sure they’re in compliance as well. According to documents filed in US District Court in Seattle ( PDF ), Adscend Media used a proprietary network of affiliates to target Facebook users with unsolicited messages that had been manipulated to appear as if they originated from friends. Carrying headlines such as “OMG! See What Happens to his Ex Girlfriend” the bait pages required users to click buttons that masqueraded as age verification checks from Facebook but really caused the messages to get posted on users’ Facebook News Feeds to allow them to spread virally. The messages never disclosed that they originated with Adscend Media for purposes of driving traffic to the websites of its customers, Washington officials alleged

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Facebook "Likejackers" agree to stop sending misleading spam