It's defined in the second paragraph: "The FBI, working with private sector partners, redirected the internet traffic going to the domains (an action known as “sinkholing”) in order to disrupt and dismantle these botnets."

Route them to nowhere. In particular, route them not to servers controlled by the criminals.

Actually they get routed to servers operated by security companies that log incoming connections. This information is then shared with internet providers and corporations to help disinfect the end users machines that are trying to coordinate with the botnet.

Do they call up customers telling them their computer has been infected with a virus? I am suddenly terrified that some non-zero percentage of those spam calls may actually be legit, and that I may need to treat every one of them as authentic (until they ask for teamviewer).

Yes, you may certainly receive a call or email. I've been on both the sending and receiving end of those while working infosec at different companies.

Interesting. Do they need a warrant for this? It doesn't sound like it since they mentioned working with "private sector partners."

> the FBI executed seizure warrants to sinkhole 23 internet domains