By BRAD STONE
New York Times

The Federal Trade Commission won a preliminary legal victory against what it called one of the largest spam gangs on the Internet, persuading a federal court in Chicago on Tuesday to freeze the group’s assets and order the spam network to shut down.

The group, which used several names but was known among spam-fighting organizations as HerbalKing, sent billions of unsolicited messages to Internet users over the last 20 months, promoting replica watches and a variety of pharmaceuticals, including weight-loss drugs and herbal pills that supposedly enhanced the male anatomy, according to the commission.

“This is pretty major. At one point these guys delivered up to one-third of all spam,” said Richard Cox, chief information officer at SpamHaus, a nonprofit antispam research group.

FOR THE COMPLETE STORY:      http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/15/technology/internet/15spam.html?th&emc=th  

~Sandy G.

Three others reported seriously ill in China

FROM CONSUMERAFFAIRS.COM

China has banned the sale and use of a popular brand of Siberian ginseng after the deaths of three people who had received injections of the herbal drug. At least three others are reported seriously ill.

The latest crisis comes as China tries to deal with the tainted milk scandal that has caused worldwide concern.

The banned ginseng was made by Wandashan Pharmaceutical, a company based in northeastern China. Chinese authorities said they had found two harmful batches of the medicine and were continuing to investigate.

It’s not known whether Wandashan markets its products outside of China.

FOR THE COMPLETE STORY:    http://www.consumeraffairs.com/news04/2008/10/ginseng.html  

~Sandy G.