Microsoft is suing Funmobile, Mobilefunster, and several individuals, who it claims have been spamming its Live Messenger network.

The software giant filed a civil lawsuit in King County Superior Court in Seattle against the alleged spammers saying that they were responsible for a multitude of attacks including IMs that appear to be coming from users they know. There were also phishing attacks that mimic the look and feel of an outside service, or an official Microsoft support page.

Using these tactics has let third parties obtain these users' personal account information, then exploit it by sending mass spam and phishing messages to the contacts of users whose accounts have been breached. Writing in his blog Tim Cranton who is Microsoft's associate general counsel of Internet safety enforcement, said the company hopes the suit will stop companies and individuals from continuing the attacks through injunction.

It hopes to recover money in damages and send a message to other parties that Windows Live is off limits. There are 320 million Windows Live Messenger users, so the network is a target for spammers. Microsoft claims that spam puts pressure on its network.