Microsoft, Mass. target spammers in lawsuit

Information obtained by software giant aids state attorney general in fight against unsolicited e-mail.

Reuters

June 10, 2005 5:00 a.m. PT

Massachusetts Attorney General Tom Reilly filed suit on Wednesday against an Internet spam ring operating near Boston, using information obtained by Microsoft in its fight against unsolicited e-mail touting everything from miracle drugs to get-rich-quick schemes.

"The most important thing is that we're asking a court today to shut them down to prevent any further victims," Reilly told reporters at a news conference in Boston.

Reilly and Microsoft said the lawsuit against seven individuals and two companies details their efforts to promote various products through "hundred of millions" spam e-mail messages sent to people worldwide from domain names registered in Monaco, Australia and France.

Leo Kuvayev was named as the leader of the spam group, and the suit said his operation worked out of Boston and Russia. He was not immediately available for comment.

"This is one of the most serious spam violators that we have seen on the Internet," Microsoft General Counsel Brad Smith told reporters.

Microsoft, the world's largest software maker, has been engaged in a three-year fight against virus writers, hackers, spammers and Internet scam artists, saying harmful software could hurt users of its Windows operating system, which runs more than 90 percent of the world's personal computers.