FTC successfully pursued & Fined New Zealand spammer AU$16 Million.

by The Copy Nazi Banned
16 replies
Spam Spam Spam Spam

Think the American FTC won't be on your ass if you're a foreigner? Think again. This Kiwi spammer was fined $100,000 in New Zealand for running an email spam operation. Then he got hit with a double-whammy when the FTC pursued his Australian assets and got a judgement for AU$16 Million. FTC Fines Lance Atkinson $16 million For Email Spam | New Zealand Spammer
#au$16 #email spam #fined #ftc #million #pursued #spam #spammer #successfully #zealand
  • Profile picture of the author Fernando Veloso
    ??

    To pay $16 Million when in one Spam blast alone they've made $2 Billion... it's a invitation to keep doing it, isn't it?
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    • Profile picture of the author Frank Murphy
      Metro, thanks for the useful post, but I don't quite comprehend, how does the FTC pursue folks from foreign lands? Do they enlist the help of Interpol or something? Or do they simply liase with the authorities in that particular country?
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      • Profile picture of the author chaos69
        Originally Posted by Metronicity View Post

        Think the American FTC won't be on your ass if you're a foreigner? Think again.
        Quite frankly, The FTC can kiss my ass


        Originally Posted by Lady NaNa View Post

        Metro, thanks for the useful post, but I don't quite comprehend, how does the FTC pursue folks from foreign lands? Do they enlist the help of Interpol or something? Or do they simply liase with the authorities in that particular country?
        From one of the comments on the linked article;

        United States and Australia Sign Two Agreements to Enhance Cooperation on Consumer Protection Matters
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        Eight bytes walk into a bar. The bartender asks, “Can I get you anything?”
        “Yeah,” reply the bytes. “Make us a double.”
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      • Profile picture of the author The Copy Nazi
        Banned
        Originally Posted by Lady NaNa View Post

        Metro, thanks for the useful post, but I don't quite comprehend, how does the FTC pursue folks from foreign lands? Do they enlist the help of Interpol or something? Or do they simply liase with the authorities in that particular country?
        If you'd followed the link you would have seen this -
        The Australian Federal Police refused to comment, referring queries to the Australian Communications and Media Authority, which helped the FTC with its investigation.
        ACMA spokesman Donald Robertson said the regulator provided "substantive assistance'' to the FTC and New Zealand authorities in relation to their investigations into the operation, known as "Herbal King''. He said details of this assistance were "confidential''.
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        • Profile picture of the author butters
          Lol, responsible for 1/3 of all spam, dam, thats a lot of spam, wounder what his profits were.
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      • Profile picture of the author xiaophil
        The original $100,000 fine related only to the two million emails the trio allegedly sent to New Zealand addresses, which netted them more than $US2 million in sales commissions.
        So they made $1 net per spam email.

        That seems like quite a high return to me.
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  • Profile picture of the author littlemo
    I am a newbie on here, please can someone tell me what these new FTC Rules are all about?
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  • Profile picture of the author winebuddy
    Just curious - do the new FTC rules apply to THIS FORUM - a private members only forum?
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    • Profile picture of the author The Copy Nazi
      Banned
      Originally Posted by winebuddy View Post

      Just curious - do the new FTC rules apply to THIS FORUM - a private members only forum?
      Ask Bob Silber. But my guess is "yes" - because it is a public forum - its "out there" - even though you need to be a member to comment.
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  • Profile picture of the author Chris Worner
    As I do not spam people I guess I have nothing to worry about
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    • Profile picture of the author butters
      Do the FTC rules apply to the war room? The private forum you have to pay for?
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  • Profile picture of the author Charann Miller
    Glad they got them, get so annoyed when the random spam still slips through the filters. Geez, one third of the worlds spam, not a title to be proud of, lucky he didn't get any jail time.

    Email spam is one thing but how do you deal with spam fax? Is it illegal in your various countries because here in New Zealand our phone company is basically shrugging their shoulders and saying "ho-hum, sorry but nothing we can do".

    To me it's the same as spam only with the additional annoying feature of using up all of your fax paper in the process.
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  • Profile picture of the author magwoi
    Article says "The original $100,000 fine related only to the two million emails the trio allegedly sent to New Zealand addresses, which netted them more than $US2 million in sales commissions."

    That is $1 profit per email!

    I can not belive how profitable spamming could be. I always thought that they made like $0.00001 per email sent.

    And then I wonder, who still buys stuff from spam emails ???

    Mag
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