Microsoft said on Tuesday it filed 15 lawsuits against so-called ”spammers” in the US and Britain accused of flooding the company’s internet customers with more than two billion unsolicited e-mails.
The company filed 13 US actions in Washington state, which recently passed an antispam law, and other jurisdictions, and two cases in British courts.
”Spam knows no borders. It is an issue that requires global coordination, so that industry and government have the maximum ability to protect consumers,” Microsoft general counsel Brad Smith said.
In some cases, the spammers are alleged to have used deceptive and misleading subject lines to disguise e-mail messages that actually contained pornographic images, dating service solicitations and other adult services, Microsoft said in a
statement.
One case involved e-mail messages that include a false virus warning that instructed recipients to download an ”update” purportedly to protect their computers that was nothing more than a toolbar that seems to track their movements on the internet.
In other cases, defendants are alleged to have ”spoofed” the sender’s e-mail address, making it seem that the spam originated from hotmail.com or other recognised senders, Microsoft said.
Earlier this year, Microsoft along with Yahoo, EarthLink and America Online agreed to cooperate to solve some of the technical issues associated with spam.
Microsoft said it would continue to work on new technology as well as legal action to fight spam.
At a news conference, Microsoft executives were joined by government officials who have taken a public stance against spam.
”We need an aggressive, sustained and comprehensive assault by industry, government and consumers to stop spam,” said Washington State Attorney General Christine Gregoire. ”Today’s lawsuits are exactly the kinds of action we need to put illegal spammers out of business.”
Spam is believed to account for about half of all e-mail traffic and is seen as a growing threat to confidence of the internet.
Legislators and regulators have been seeking ways to crack down on spam, and a number of lawsuits have been filed seeking to halt unwanted e-mails.
Spam is seen as an annoyance to individual users, but a major cost to many companies, which collectively spend billions of dollars in an effort to keep out the unsolicited e-mails that could choke their networks. – Sapa-AFP