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FTC Wins Injunction Against HerbalKing

By: Justin Bourne

Posted: 10/15/2008

In an announcement Tuesday, the Federal Trade Commission declared a significant victory via an injunction against international spamming operation, HerbalKing, which is reportedly responsible for more than a billion spam emails.

The FTC maintains that more than 3 million complaints regarding spam mail linked to the HerbalKing operation have been forwarded to the organization.

An order was issued by a U.S. District Court prohibiting all defendants, including the brothers, from further spamming or bogus product claims and all assets held by the defendants have been frozen.

Due to the fact that some of the defendants reside in New Zealand, their authorities have been notified and are working in conjunction with the FTC.

Additionally, the spamming operation is in hot water over one of its products, VPXL, which they advertised as 100 percent herbal, but contains sildenafil, an active ingredient in Viagra. Sildenafil is also known to cause unsafe drops in blood pressure when combined with certain drugs containing nitrates.

Other infractions include unlawful operation of a pharmacy, selling drugs sourced from India, and selling medications without requiring proof of a prescription, dosage instructions and a doctor's instructions.