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E-mail This StorySHUT DOWN: The Federal Trade Commission claimed a McKinney resident helped orchestrate an email network that “peddled” almost one-third of the world’s spam.
By Danny Gallagher, McKinney Courier-Gazette
The Federal Trade Commission announced they shut down the operations of a global spam network that advertised fraudulent drugs and products that accounts for nearly one-third of the world’s spam messages and implicated a McKinney man in their efforts.
FTC officials claimed that Jody Michael Smith of McKinney helped oversee and control four companies with Lance Atkinson of New Zealand that registered more than 3 million complaints regarding spam messages and stand among some of the largest spamming agencies in the world, according to a statement released by the FTC late last week.
Attorneys for the FTC filed a temporary restraining order and complaint against Smith and Atkinson in the U.S. District Court of the Northern District of Illinois for “deceptively marketing a variety of products through spam messages, including a male-enhancement pill, prescription drugs and a weight-loss pill,” according to the statement.
The complaint claims Smith is liable for allegedly making false claims about pharmaceutical products and Atkinson is liable for alleged false statements about all of the messages’ claims, according to the FTC.
FTC officials also claim the companies processed more than $400,000 in Visa charges for these products, according to the New York Times.
The messages advertised pills and other products as “VPXL” that claimed was an “herbal male enhancement pill” and was “100 percent herbal and safe.” The FTC claims both of those statements are false because the U.S. Food and Drug Administration tested the pills and found they contain “sildenafil,” the active ingredient found in Viagra.
The messages also advertised the sale of prescriptions drugs that they claim came from a “bona-fide, U.S.-licensed pharmacy that dispenses FDA-approved generic versions of drugs such as Levitra, Avodart, Cialis, Propecia, Viagra, Lipitor, Celebrex and Zoloft.” FTC investigators alleged that Smith and Atkinson do not run a licensed pharmacy and the drugs they sold were shipped from India and received no federal approval from any regulated food or drug agency, according to the statement.
Smith and Atkinson allegedly recruited spammers from around the world to send messages to billions of recipients to direct them to a website, a process known as “affking.” The messages contained false header information designed “to hide the origin of the messages” and failed to list a physical postal address, which are violations of the CAN-SPAM (Controlling the Assault of Non-Solicited Pornography and Marketing) Act of 2003,” according to the FTC.
FTC officials called last week’s legal actions among the Commission’s largest and most successful victories.
“They were sending extraordinary amounts of spam,” FTC Commissioner Jon Leibowitz told the New York Times. “We are hoping at some level that this will help make a small dent in the amount of spam coming into consumers’ in-boxes.”
Attempts were made to reach Smith at his home, but he could not be reached by presstime. He also has an unlisted phone number.
Contact Danny Gallagher at dgallagher@acnpapers.com.
