FTC Moves on Queensland Spam Villain

By Greg McNevin

October 16, 2008: A Queensland resident is at the centre of a massive spam crackdown, with the US’s Federal Trade Commission (FTC) taking action against one of the world’s largest spam networks.

The FTC has been working with authorities in New Zealand to bring charges against well-known spammers Jody Smith from Texas in the US, and Lance Atkinson, a New Zealander living on the Sunshine Coast.

Smith and Atkinson have already been taken to court by the FTC, with the commission winning a US$2.2 (AU$3.2) million judgment against the two for spam activities in 2005.

The latest charges allege that Smith and Atkinson and the four companies they control - Inet Ventures Pty Ltd., Tango Pay inc., Click Fusion inc., and TwoBucks Trading Limited – used a large botnet of PCs compromised with malware to send spam emails promoting their herbal drug websites “Target Pharmacy” and “Canadian Healthcare”.

“The FTC's complaint alleges that both Atkinson and Smith are liable for the spamming,” said the FTC in a written statement. “It holds Lance Atkinson responsible for all product claims, and Smith liable for claims made for the pharmaceutical products.”

The FTC says the two worked with accomplices from Australia, New Zealand, China, India, Russia, Canada, and the US to send out billions of spam emails, which at one point in time almost compromised a full third of the world’s spam.

Along with a myriad of other charges, the FTC also claims that the spammers proclaimed that their websites were encrypted with SSL technology to protect the personal information of customers, however, this was found to be false.

Despite being put out of business so far, the group’s spam activities are continuing as much of its network is autonomous.

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