The lawsuits were filed in in Illinois and New Zealand High Court in Christchurch over the past week. They describe an international spamming operation run out of New Zealand, Australia and the U.S. that sold the kinds of phony male-enhancement pills, knock-off prescription drugs, sex toys and replica watches that have gummed up e-mail inboxes for years.

In addition to freezing the group's U.S. assets, the FTC is seeking damages for consumers who bought the bogus products, said Steve Wernikoff, an FTC staff attorney who worked on the case. That could end up costing the alleged spammers millions of dollars, he said. "We hope that we can shut down parts of the operation or make it more difficult for them to operate," he said.

Two brothers, Shane Atkinson of Christchurch and Lance Atkinson of Pelican Waters, Queensland, Australia, are named in the suits, as is Texas resident Jody Smith and Roland Smits, also of Christchurch.

The suits stem from a December 2007 raid by the New Zealand Department of Internal Affairs that seized 22 computers and documents from several locations in Christchurch, including the home of Shane Atkinson.

Since then, the U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and New Zealand authorities have worked together to build their case, according to Department of Internal Affairs spokesman Trevor Henry. "They have spent months just going through [the data] and analyzing and pulling it all together," he said.