NEW YORK (AP) -- Microsoft Corp. and New York's attorney general filed lawsuits Thursday against what they called a spam ring responsible for sending billions of illegal e-mail messages.
The lawsuits, filed in state Supreme Court in Manhattan, target Scott Richter, who has been identified as one of the world's most prolific senders of spam, or junk e-mail. They accuse Richter and "accomplices" of sending illegal spam in 35 countries and disguising their work to prevent irritated consumers from tracing the messages.
New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer's lawsuit seeks fines of $500 for each fraudulent statement made in an e-mail. In a single month this spring, Spitzer said, his office uncovered 40,000 fraudulent statements made in 8,000 spam e-mails traced to Richter and his associates. At $500 each, the potential fines add to $20 million.
Richter could not be immediately reached for comment, but he told The New York Times for Thursday editions that the suits were baseless.
In a statement, Microsoft said the e-mail campaigns used common spam techniques such as forged sender names, false subject lines, fake server names, inaccurate and misrepresented sender addresses, or obscured transmission paths.
"Deceptive and illegal spam, like the kind we're attacking today, is overwhelming legitimate e-mail and threatening the promise and potential of the Internet for all of us," said Brad Smith, senior vice president and general counsel at Microsoft.
The lawsuits were brought under a state law that prohibits deceptive business practices.
Spitzer said he believed Richter was clearing millions of dollars a month in profits from spam.
