Feds Shut Down Major Spam Operation
Herbal King gang sent billions of spam messages pushing prescription drugs and phony male-enhancement products
October 14, 2008
The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) today shuttered one of the world's largest spamming operations. The Herbal King gang, aka Affking, is responsible for billions of spam messages selling prescription drugs and phony male-enhancement products.
The spam ring sent spam messages offering generic versions of Levitra, Cialis, Propecia, Viagra, Lipitor, Celebrex, Zoloft, and other drugs, as well as an herbal "permanent" male-enhancement pill called VPXL, through hundreds of unsavory Websites, according to the FTC. The spammers pushed their spam runs via the Mega-D/Ozdok botnet and other botnets.
A U.S. district court in Illinois ordered the gang to halt its spam operations and has frozen the assets of New Zealand resident Lance Atkinson and Jody Smith of Texas, as well as the four companies they run, Inet Ventures Pty Ltd., Tango Pay Inc., Click Fusion Inc., and TwoBucks Trading Limited. The FTC complaint charges that Atkinson is liable for product claims by the operation, and Smith for claims about the pharmaceutical products.
The spammers falsely claimed to sell medications as a U.S. licensed pharmacy that sells FDA-approved generic drugs, but the drugs were shipped from India and are potentially unsafe,
Amid Controversy, Outed Steroid Sites Still Online and Hundreds of Websites Outed for Illegally Selling Steroids.)
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