Microsoft Sues Xpays, Other Alleged Spammers in 15 U.S. and U.K. Actions

Even Microsoft gets mad as hell and won't take it anymore. The software empire has slammed 15 lawsuits in the United States and Great Britain against spammers they say are responsible, collectively, for flooding Microsoft customers and systems with over 2 billion deceptive spam messages – including a pair of adult Internet companies, Xpays.com, Inc and Global Media, Inc., creators of HardcoreMoney.com

Microsoft accuses Xpays of sending unsolicited porn spam and using misleading subject lines and spoofed third-party domains, including Hotmail.com, MSN.com, and others, as the originating addressed. An Xpays worker said no one in authority was available for comment when reached by AVN Online late June 17.

Global Media is accused of sending spam opening to "a compilation" of adult photos and links to free and pay adult Websites, as well as sending spam from the freepass.com domain.

"I was actually surprised to find out we were named," said Global Media president Tom Avery from his Florida offices. "But I think when everything comes out in the wash, I think it'll be either dismissed or dropped."

Avery said the freepass.com list was the likely Microsoft target because it was easy enough to do so, but he added the list is a double opt-in list which requires a user visiting the Website and asking onto their mailing list to confirm that they want to be on the list.

"I think we're getting named just because we were the easiest to find," Avery said. "We're going to take it one step at a time, I haven't seen any (official) papers or anything related to (the actual lawsuit)…They're accusing us of sending unsolicited e-mail only. They're not accusing us of faking, spoofing, or anything else that could be prosecuted under Washington (State's) spam law."

The lawsuits cover various charges against 33 total defendants, ranging from deceptive or misleading subject lines for porn and other spam, like dating services and other adult-oriented services, to false virus warnings disguising toolbars that seem to track recipients' Internet movements, and also things like job and business opportunities, Microsoft said announcing the suits.

Other cases involve spoofing senders' e-mails to make it look like the spam came from Hotmail or other recognizable e-mail services, which Microsoft said misled recipients or made end-runs around anti-spam filters.

Other cases involve spammers spoofing a sender's e-mail to make it look like the mail came from Hotmail or other recognized e-mail services, which Microsoft said misled recipients or made end-runs around anti-spam filters.

It wasn't yet known or discussed whether a recent rash of e-mail viruses which originators sent with fake Microsoft.com addresses also helped provoke the company to hit the courts running against spammers.

But senior vice president and general counsel Brad Smith said Microsoft won't budge from commitments to strengthen public and private cooperation in socking spam. Microsoft's home state has an anti-spam law which gives Internet service providers tools including legal action to hit the spammers.

Microsoft Europe, Middle East, and Africa senior vice president and chief executive officer Jean-Philippe Courtois announced that division's anti-spam initiative, under which two of the fifteen spam suits were filed in Britain, charging illegal e-mail account harvesting and other abuses under a British law, the 1990 Misuse of Computers Act.

With Washington State Attorney General Christine Gregoire by his side, Smith said government and industry "can and will restore to consumers the promise of a trustworthy, more productive e-mail experience. Spam knows no borders. It is an issue that requires global coordination, so that industry and government have the maximum ability to protect consumers."

Gregoire agreed, saying what's needed is an "aggressive, sustained and comprehensive assault by industry, government, and consumers to stop spam." She called the Microsoft lawsuits just what's needed "to put illegal spammers out of business."

But while the British Information Commissioner's Office applauded the Microsoft suits, assistant commissioner Phil Jones warned that spam won't and can't be solved by law alone. He said cross-border cooperation in a "coordinated, multipronged approach," was the best way to stop the spam epidemic.

Earlier this year, Microsoft joined with Yahoo, EarthLink, and America Online in a working group to tackle the technical side of the spam fight.

Microsoft's lawsuits were announced on the same day that the Federal Trade Commission and the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development announced a new set of guidelines aimed at fighting cross-border fraud, in which they said spam was a key player. 

"Cross border fraud perpetrated through telemarketing, Websites, and spam, harms consumers and consumer confidence in the global marketplace," said FTC commissioner Mozelle W. Thompson as the new guidelines were announced. They "reflect an international commitment by consumer protection law enforcement agencies to work together to combat these schemes," said Thompson, who also chairs the OECD's Committee on Consumer Policy.

"Fraud against U.S. consumers is more and more frequently being committed by individuals outside our nation's borders," said FTC Chairman Timothy J. Muris as the guidelines were announced. "The FTC is dedicated to continuing to work diligently to protect consumers, and the Guidelines announced today will improve our ability to coordinate with our international law enforcement partners to stop cross-border scams."

The guidelines call for "principles for international cooperation," including consumer protection enforcement agencies coordinating investigations and enforcement to avoid interference in other countries' agencies' probes, using "existing international networks and enter(ing) into appropriate bilateral or multilateral arrangements" to implement guidelines and investigate cases where possible, and for member countries to designate a consumer protection agency as taking that country's lead role in fighting cross-border fraud.

The guidelines also call for member countries to share non-confidential information "in appropriate instances," including consumer complaints, Internet domain registrations, corporate data, "and other information permitting the quick location and identification of those engaged in fraudulent and deceptive commercial practices." But privacy advocates and civil libertarians may be likely to question whether that kind of guideline leaves open too much room for exposing certain confidential consumer information on and offline to government misuse.

American analysts are already worried that a recent rash of anti-spam legislative proposals might accomplish nothing except possibly cramping free speech and suffocating small businesses working legitimate e-commerce while merely shifting the spammers offshore.

"Regulating communications isn't something to be done lightly," wrote Clyde Wayne Crews, director of technology policy for the libertarian Cato Institute, in a recent article. He said if such lawmaking only sends the worst spammers offshore "to continue hammering us," that might mean nothing but "legal and regulatory hassles" for those small e-businesses, or for mainstream businesses who don't spam.

"Given the perfectly understandable desire to stop unsolicited e-mail, it is all too easy for Congress to undermine legitimate commerce, communications and free speech," Crews continued. "And crippling Internet commerce would be especially pointless if spam continued pouring in from overseas."