USA Today and other media outlets are reporting that the Federal Authorities have shut down a massive international spam operation.
The Federal Trade Commisiion (FTC) website listed details of the story this afternoon:
"According to papers filed with the court, the defendants recruited spammers around the world to send billions of spam messages directing consumers to Web sites operated by an affiliate program called "Affking." By using false header information to hide the origin of the messages, failing to provide an opt-out link, and failing to list a physical postal address, the defendants violated the CAN-SPAM (Controlling the Assault of Non-Solicited Pornography and Marketing) Act of 2003.
Some security researchers believe that at one time, nearly one-third of the world's spam e-mail came from a network of compromised computers, often referred to as a 'botnet,' that sent spam promoting the defendants' Web sites. Their enterprise included participants in Australia, New Zealand, China, India, Russia, Canada, and the United States."
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