Court action is being taken over what NZ and US officials are calling one of the biggest spam email operations in the world.

Three Christchurch men have been named in a civil case filed in New Zealand by Internal Affairs.

Internal Affairs says the spam was promoting sex and pharmaceutical products, even replica watches. And the department says the three men involved have made a lot of money doing it.

Spokesman Keith Manch says they have identified just over two million spam emails that came to New Zealand addresses alone in a three month period last year.

"I think we've seen around $US2 million that's been going through accounts related to them," he says.

The operation is the first to be targeted under tough new anti-spam laws in New Zealand which say people should not send emails unless they are welcome.

Source:TVNZ