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FTC shuts down major spam network

Daniel Fleshbourne   on 15 October 2008 - 10:55 · 9 comments & 4185 views

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The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has shut down what it claims was the world's largest network of spammers. The network had sent out billions of messages, according to the FTC which has received over three million complaints about the activities. With spammers in Australia, New Zealand, China, India, Russia, Canada and the US, the group is estimated to have been responsible for up to a third of all junk email.

"The defendants used spam email to sell prescription drugs. They claimed that the medications came from a bona fide US-licensed pharmacy that dispenses FDA-approved generic versions of drugs such as Levitra, Avodart, Cialis, Propecia, Viagra, Lipitor, Celebrex and Zoloft," said the FTC. "In fact, the defendants do not operate a US-licensed pharmacy. They sell drugs that are shipped from India."

View: The full story @ vnunet

Post a comment · Send to friend Comments · There are 9 additional comments
(1 reply) #1 ]SK[ on 15 Oct 2008 - 11:27
Always good to read news like this. I would still like to know who's buying from these people though.
#1.1 excalpius on 15 Oct 2008 - 18:05
50% of all people are average intelligence or less. It's really that simple.
#2 saiya on 15 Oct 2008 - 12:13
i wanna know how they sit around and type in all those millions of e-mails addressed lol


do they use a bot or something? still where do they get the e-mail addresses?

i've made a brand new e-mail using my domain and in a matter of hours received junk mail for viagra....
#3 Webworldx on 15 Oct 2008 - 16:45
Anyone will sell you an e-mail address list, there's lots of companies that specialise in trawling the web looking for mailto: links...
(1 reply) #4 ozgeek on 16 Oct 2008 - 18:05
Yeah they do a search for any possible email address all over the internet. Contact email address published on a website is all that need to get spam in that address. That is why it is good idea to do like this

example "at" domain "dot" com

and not

example@domain.com
#4.1 Pupik on 18 Oct 2008 - 17:10
Do you really believe that the bots that collect that data, can't translate the "dot" for an actual dot and "at" to the at sign?
#5 clotz2000 on 16 Oct 2008 - 19:02
Spammers and their servers are a waste of time and internet space, it's always good when they shut down a large Spam network like this. Also, the drugs could be harmful too as the FDA doesn't approve generic versions imported from different countries, you never know what they put in their stuff.
#6 Relativity_17 on 17 Oct 2008 - 23:58
I find it appalling that it takes three milllion complaints before action is taken.
#7 GreyWolfSC on 20 Oct 2008 - 00:03
Didn't help... They switched to spamming from somewhere else with Live Spaces landings instead.

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