  hide cookie message 70,314 News Articles  World's biggest
spammers ordered to pay $15.2m  International operation sent
billions of spam emails  The largest 'spam gang' in the world
has been ordreed to pay nearly $15.2 million for sending
unsolicited email messages marketing male-enhancement pills,
prescription drugs and weight-loss supplements, the US Federal
Trade Commission has announced.  Spamhaus, the antispam
organization, called the email marketing network the 'No. 1
worst spam gang' on the internet for much of 2007 and 2008.
Australian resident Lance Atkinson, the spam ring's leader, has
paid more than $80,000 to New Zealand authorities after
confirming his involvement in the spam network, and accomplice
Jody Smith, a US resident, has agreed to an order that he turn
over nearly all his assets to the FTC, the agency said.  In
October 2008, a judge in the US District Court for the Northern
District of Illinois, Eastern Division, ordered an asset freeze
and a halt to the network's operation, which gene