Australian link to two billion spam emails probed

SYDNEY: Australian authorities on Wednesday said  they were investigating a man accused of sending out more than two billion spam emails most of them touting Viagra.

The Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) said it had searched a home after a tip-off from Dutch authorities.

"Preliminary analysis of the email messages contained in the spam campaign has identified that over two billion emails were sent," acting authority Lyn Maddock said.

"Analysis to date has identified that the messages in the spam campaign primarily promoted Viagra products," she said.

Bruce Matthews, manager of ACMA's anti-spam team, said the regulator was working with Dutch telecommunications authority OPTA, who had brought the case to the attention of Australian authorities.

Matthews said he could not comment further as investigations were still underway and would take some months.

OPTA's Danyel Molenaar said that a raid on a small Dutch Internet service provider had revealed that an Australian was responsible for the flood of emails, an Australian news agency reported on Wednesday.

Molenaar said that the man rented 35 servers from the Internet service provider to send spam out for at least a year. "This operation probably sent out billions and billions of emails," he said.

Although the emails appeared to have been sent from overseas, it was an offence under Australian law for an Australian to be involved, ACMA said.

The Australian authority said it was still analysing the information obtained from its raid, and had yet to determine whether there was an Australian link.

Fines for breaching Australia's Spam Act 2003 range up to a million dollars a day for repeat corporate offenders, the authority said.