South Korean duo arrested for 1.6 bln spam e-mails

Two South Korean computer programmers have been arrested on suspicion of sending out 1.6 billion spam e-mail messages in violation of the country’s commerce laws, Reuters reports.

The two men, one aged 20 and the other 26, are suspected of sending out the unsolicited e-mail messages between September and December last year in what police describe as one of the biggest spam blasts in the country’s history.

The two are suspected of obtaining personal and financial data from 12,000 South Koreans who responded to their spam messages. The pair then sold information on those people to lending services firms in return for 100 million won ($106,400), police said.

“This kind of spam mailing is causing enormous problems in South Korea and we think these two are responsible for some of the biggest abuses,” a police official said.