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Source: ONE News -
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Two New Zealanders have been ordered to pay big financial penalties after admitting their part in an international spamming operation.
In the High Court at Christchurch, Justice Christine French ordered Shane Atkinson of Christchurch to pay $100,000 and Roland Smits, $50,000.
The penalties were imposed for their roles in a Christchurch business that over four months in 2007 sent more than two million unsolicited emails to New Zealand addresses marketing pharmaceutical products.
Last December, Atkinson's brother, Lance Thomas Atkinson, of Queensland, paid $100,000 plus costs of $7666 after admitting his involvement.
Lance Atkinson is also facing court action in the United States brought against him by the Federal Trade Commission.
The Department of Internal Affairs said the latest settlements marked the final stage of Operation Herbal King, an investigation conducted by its anti-spam compliance unit.
Within three months of the passing of the Unsolicited Electronic Messages Act in 2007, the department had shut down the New Zealand component of what was ranked as the largest pharmaceutical spamming operation in the history of the internet.
The operation organised and paid affiliates around the world to send spam emails marketing Herbal King, Elite Herbal and Express Herbal branded pharmaceutical products.
These were manufactured and shipped by Tulip Lab of India, through a business known as the Genbucks Affiliate Programme, operated by Genbucks Ltd, a company incorporated in the Republic of Mauritius.
Internal Affairs deputy secretary Keith Manch said it worked with overseas agencies, particularly the US Federal Trade Commission, to conclude the investigation.
"Operation Herbal King is a major success for the Department and its small Anti-Spam Compliance Unit," Manch said.
"The FTC was able to provide technical information making it possible for our
investigators to identify the defendants and obtain evidence of the offending."
Manch said the anti-spam legislation stopped New Zealand from becoming a spammer's haven.
"Current estimates suggest that around 120 billion spam messages are sent (globally) every day," he said.
"These emails clog up the internet, disrupt email delivery, reduce business productivity, raise internet access fees, irritate recipients and erode people's confidence in using email."
