This week legal proceedings were instigated by the US Federal Trade Commission and the New Zealand Department of Internal Affairs against a major spam operation. The individuals involved ran an affiliate program that recruited and paid spammers to market their products. At the request of the FTC, a US district court has ordered a halt to the group’s operations. Authorities in New Zealand also have taken legal action, asking the High Court to impose penalties against members of the gang.
At TRACE, we welcome this development and we applaud the actions of the authorities concerned, whom we were more than happy to assist during their investigations. The more prosecutions against spammers like this the better.
This gang was behind some of spam’s most voluminous and notorious brands. If you have an email account, no doubt you will have seen spam promoting products with brands such as “VPXL”, “ManSter”, “MegaDik”, and “King Replica” .
In February of this year we noted that one particular botnet, which we dubbed Mega-D, was almost exclusively promoting these brands. At that time we estimated as much as 32% of spam sent globally was originating from Mega-D. Other botnets also promoted these brands at times, including Srizbi, Rustock, Pushdo and Bobax.
But will this action result in less spam in our inboxes? Probably not a lot in the short term. There are numerous affiliate programs, spamming groups and botnets. Our spam traps this morning are still full of spam from all the major spamming botnets, promoting a wide range of products. Mega-D itself is still spamming away, although its output is slightly down and it is focusing on one type of dating spam only.
Despite this, such legal action is absolutely necessary. It sends strong signals to would-be spammers, and may well influence spam levels over the longer term.
More information:
US FTC Press Release
New Zealand Department of Internal Affairs Press Release
Original BBC article: Super scam me
