Editing Spamming (section)

===New Zealand===
In October 2008, an international internet spam operation run from New Zealand was cited by American authorities as one of the world's largest, and for a time responsible for up to a third of all unwanted e-mails. In a statement the US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) named Christchurch's Lance Atkinson as one of the principals of the operation. New Zealand's Internal Affairs announced it had lodged a $200,000 claim in the High Court against Atkinson and his brother [[Shane Atkinson]] and courier Roland Smits, after raids in Christchurch. This marked the first prosecution since the Unsolicited Electronic Messages Act (UEMA) was passed in September 2007.
The FTC said it had received more than three million complaints about spam messages connected to this operation, and estimated that it may be responsible for sending billions of illegal spam messages. The US District Court froze the defendants' assets to preserve them for consumer redress pending trial.<ref>{{cite news |url=http://www.stuff.co.nz/technology/675386 |title=Kiwi spam network was 'World's biggest' |date=16 October 2008 |work=[[Stuff.co.nz]] |access-date=13 November 2011 |archive-date=10 March 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140310200259/http://www.stuff.co.nz/technology/675386 |url-status=live }}</ref>
U.S. co-defendant Jody Smith forfeited more than $800,000 and faces up to five years in prison for charges to which he pleaded guilty.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.ftc.gov/opa/2009/11/herbalkings.shtm |title=Court Orders Australia-based Leader of International Spam Network to Pay $15.15 Million |publisher=Ftc.gov |date=2011-06-24 |access-date=2013-09-03 |archive-date=2013-06-26 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130626075839/http://ftc.gov/opa/2009/11/herbalkings.shtm |url-status=live }}</ref>