KEY POINTS:
A New Zealander has been ordered to pay $100,000 in fines after admitting his part in an international spamming operation.
Lance Atkinson now lives in Australia but had been involved with a group which sent more than two million messages around New Zealand between September and December last year. The messages were offering the chance for readers to buy pharmaceutical products.
Internal Affairs anti-spam compliance manager, Joe Stewart, says he is happy with the fine handed down. He says mitigating factors were Atkinson's early guilty plea, his cooperation with authorities and the fact that when he started the operation, spamming was not illegal in New Zealand.
- NEWSTAKL ZB
