Anti-Spam Alliance extends legal action against spammers

By Alun Williams

Posted on 29 Oct 2004 at 12:07

More anti-spam suits have been filed under the US federal CAN-SPAM law by Microsoft and the Anti-Spam Alliance.

The announcement of three new lawsuits was made in conjunction with the ISPs America Online, EarthLink and Yahoo! also filing actions against alleged spammers. The suits were filed across courts in Virginia, Georgia and California.

In the latest cases, Microsoft alleges the defendants sent millions of emails - advertising herbal growth supplements and mortgage services - routed via open proxies, and that they spoofed the domains of the four Internet service providers to give a spurious authority to the mails.

'Collectively, these Internet service providers continue to change the economics of spam by identifying and targeting top alleged spammers,' stated Microsoft's Internet safety enforcement attorney, Aaron Kornblum.

'Microsoft alone has supported more than 100 legal actions worldwide,' he added, 'including 75 lawsuits in the United States, against those who strain our consumers' inboxes with unwanted and deceptive e-mail, many carrying and transmitting malicious code, spyware and links to phishing sites.'

Microsoft describes the developments as the second round of enforcement actions filed by the Anti-Spam lliance, which was founded in April 2003 by AOL, EarthLink, Microsoft and Yahoo! - Internet giants join-up in fight against spam. The first round of actions was back in March - Leading Internet players take spammers to court - involving the first major industry lawsuits against spammers under the CAN-SPAM federal law, which came into effect 1 January 2004.