Defending Live Messenger
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.