Shane Atkinson
Shane Atkinson, of
Atkinson was tracked down by anti-spam collaborators on the
His brother Lance has also become well-known and was ordered to pay US$2 million to the United States authorities for his spamming operations in March 2005.[3]
An investigation by the BBC broadcast in December 2007 and January 2008 found Atkinson was still active in spamming. Atkinson's
"Well, it wasn’t me, mate. We have closed all that down years ago."[3]
Cox put it to him that he was still controlling a network of computers and that he had been sending out spam.
Atkinson replied
"Well I am not controlling any computers, mate. I’m not interested in talking to you, bye."[3]
Following on Cox's investigation, New Zealand police at the end of 2007 raided four properties in Christchurch and seized 22 computers. They interviewed two men about illegal spamming and in October 2008 the
On Monday, 22 December 2008 Lance Atkinson was fined NZ$100,000 after the Department of Internal Affairs laid charges under the Unsolicited Electronic Messages Act.[6] It is understood Atkinson settled out of court. In summing up the judge conceded that the offending started before the act came into force and Atkinson had co-operated with the authorities. Lance now has the dubious honour of being the first person to be fined under the new act. Shane Atkinson and Roland Smits have elected to defend the changes currently before the courts.[7]
See also
References
- ^ a b Saarinen, Juha (15 August 2003). "Spammers hit below men's belts". The New Zealand Herald. Retrieved 9 November 2011.
- ^ Saarinen, Juha (4 May 2004). "NZ connection in US spam prosecution". The New Zealand Herald. Retrieved 9 November 2011.
- ^ a b c BBC World Service On the Trail of the Spammers 17 January 2008
- ^ How to track down spammers, Public Radio International, December 18, 2007
- ^ "Press Releases - dia.govt.nz".
- ^ "Unsolicited Electronic Messages Act 2007 No 7 (as at 28 October 2021), Public Act Contents – New Zealand Legislation".
- ^ "Kiwi in global spamming operation fined $100k". The New Zealand Herald. 22 December 2008.