Microsoft Drags Hotmail Spammers to Court

Microsoft sued three unidentified spammers for using its Hotmail service to send unwanted bulk emails to millions of people including hotmail users, according to news published by Tgdaily on May 29, 2007.

The lawsuit filed by Microsoft names three John Does for apparently sending spam mails and fabricating a story about particular stock prices rising in the market as a part of a stock fraud scheme. People purchased a huge quantity of these low-cost stocks and tried to falsely increase their prices.

In order to teach spammers a lesson, Microsoft had also filed a similar lawsuit in 2003 but its result was unclear. Again in 2004 Microsoft took a legal action under the CAN-SPAM act. Yet thousands of spammers still continue to thrive.

Recently, Microsoft confessed that up to 98% of emails received by Hotmail users is spam. According to news published by Itweek in April 2007, Microsoft's own study revealed that between 40 and 98% of emails received by Hotmail users are unwanted or fake in nature.

Microsoft realized the enormity of the Hotmail spam trouble when it disclosed the findings of a study concerning the use of its Sender ID spam-filtering technology. The results were a great let down for Bill Gates, Microsoft Chairman, who, at the 2004 Davos World Economic Forum, envisaged that the spam would be eradicated within two years.

Spammers have long been flooding the inboxes of Hotmail users with bizarre hoax spams, the most common among them remains the Hotmail hoax. This spam informs users that their accounts could be terminated if the e-mail is not forwarded to ten other Hotmail users.

Similarly, another second most popular spam is "Olympic Torch". This spam informs users about a new virus which opens an Olympic Torch and burns the entire hard disc C of the computer.

Microsoft expects the three unidentified spammers to compensate for the damages to the company and discontinue sending spam mails to its Hotmail users in future.

Related article: Microsoft Patches Live OneCare to Tackle Quarantined E-Mails

» SPAMfighter News - 6/8/2007