U.S. authorities announced today that they have shut down one of the largest spam operations in the world, an extensive network with ties to Australia, New Zealand, India, China and the United States. The group, dubbed 'HerbalKing' by spam fighting organizations, had been active as far back as 2005 and became notorious as the number one worst spam gang on the Internet for much of 2007 and 2008 according to Spamhaus, a non-profit anti-spam research group.

The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) said it has received over three million complaints about spam messages related to this operation, and that it is possibly responsible for sending billions of illegal spam messages. It is believed that at one time, nearly one-third of the world's spam email came from botnets promoting the HerbalKing Web sites.

Elsewhere: Spamhaus, New York Times, Associated Press, Federal Trade Commission

Related topics: Cybercrime, Email, Law, Spam