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By Elinor Mills, 15 September 2006 13:00

NEWS

The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has shut down four illegal internet spam operations, including two that hijacked computers to send sexually explicit spam.

In the US District Court for the Northern District of Illinois, Cleverlink Trading and its partners were ordered to pay $400,000 made from sending email that offered the opportunity to "date lonely wives" and which violated nearly every provision of the Can-Spam Act, the FTC said in a statement on Thursday.

The Can-Spam Act requires that spam email messages be labelled as ads, include the sender's postal address, provide an opt-out method, label sexually explicit material as such, and not show graphic sexual images in the initially viewable area of the message, among other things.

In another case, the FTC alleged Zachary Kinion sent spam that advertised adult sites, mortgage rates and privacy software. It also said Kinion paid others to send unsolicited email messages and sent spam via so-called "zombie" computers without the knowledge of the PC owners.

Kinion was ordered by the Illinois court to pay $151,000 but the judgment was suspended because of his inability to pay, the FTC said.

Also in the Illinois court, Brian McMullen, doing business as BM Entertainment and B Pimp, was ordered to pay $24,193. The judgment was suspended for inability to pay, the FTC said. McMullen also pleaded guilty to criminal charges related to sending spam and unauthorised possession of access devices - credit cards - the agency said. He is awaiting sentencing on those charges.

In the fourth case, in US District Court for the District of Arizona, William Dugger, Angelina Johnson and John Vitale were ordered to pay $8,000 for using "spam zombies" and not correctly labelling sexually explicit spam, the FTC said.

Elinor Mills writes for CNET News.com