A spammer whom authorities say e-mailed more than 9 billion unwanted advertisements for products like erection pills faces a hefty fine: If he needs headache medication or debt relief there’s probably an unsolicited ad in his own inbox.

Dutch authorities have levied a $97,000 fine on an unidentified man for sending “unsolicited electronic messages to consumers to promote erection enhancement pills, pornographic web sites, sex products and such,” the country’s telecommunications watchdog said Friday in a statement. It was the largest such fine levied by the watchdog, known by its Dutch acronym OPTA.

OPTA said it considered several factors, including the sheer volume of the messages, saying the 9 billion was a “minimum” estimate.

“Another aggravating factor was that this person used hundreds of so-called proxies,” OPTA said. That’s a common spamming technique in which computers of unsuspecting users are commandeered, often using viruses or other malicious software, to conceal the messages’ true origins, making them more likely to slip by anti-spam filters.