An Australian man is being investigated for sending more than two billion spam emails, most of them promoting Viagra.

The Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) said it had received a tip off from Dutch authorities that an Australian male resident was responsible for the flood of spam hitting computer servers located in Holland.

The ACMA has executed a search warrant on a home in Australia in the past few weeks as part of its investigation but would not divulge today the location or the date of the raid.

“Preliminary analysis of the email messages contained in the spam campaign has identified that over two billion emails were sent in one spam campaign,” acting ACMA chair Lyn Maddock said.

“ACMA analysis to date has identified that the messages in the spam campaign primarily promoted Viagra products,” she said.

Ms Maddock said the spam that was being examined by the ACMA appeared to have been sent from overseas.

But she said the ACMA was undertaking further analysis of the information to establish if there was an Australian link associated with the spam campaign.

Section seven of the Spam Act 2003, makes it an offence for an Australian to be involved in the sending of spam if there is an Australian link.

The Spam Act came into force in April 2004, and regulates the sending of commercial electronic messages.

The ACMA said penalties for contravention of the Spam Act include fines of up to $220,000 per day for first-time corporate offenders and up to $1.1 million per day for repeat offenders.

Ms Maddock said the ACMA was working closely with overseas agencies in its investigation, which she anticipated would continue for several months.

SOURCE