Chinese police arrest spammers

CHANGSHA - Four people involved in paid online spamming have been arrested in Central China's Hunan province, local police said on Wednesday.

The unnamed suspects are in detention on charges of illegal business dealings, according to the public security bureau in the city of Xiangtan, Hunan.

The four suspects allegedly organized a group of spammers to post and comment on threads in major online forums and social networking websites. The posts, including "scandal exposure" and "hype articles", were all commissioned.

The four spammers were accused of illegally obtaining 480,000 yuan ($78,400) through 125 spamming campaigns.

The police said the suspects all confessed to the charges.