Microsoft Corp. and New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer on Thursday filed lawsuits against a group of e-mail marketers they said were responsible for sending billions of fraudulent spam messages.
Microsoft, the world’s largest software company, said the defendants in the civil lawsuits include New York marketing firm Synergy6 Inc. and Scott Richter, who runs Westminster, Colorado-based Optinrealbig.com.
Spitzer, known for his aggressive pursuit of corporate fraud in recent years, has previously brought three lawsuits against so-called spammers, those who send unsolicited commercial e-mails. He said Richter was responsible for sending more than 250 million spam messages per day and profited handsomely from his business.
“We believe Scott Richter is clearing several million dollars a month in profits,” Spitzer told reporters at a news conference in New York. He said he hoped the joint legal action with Microsoft would drive Richter and Synergy6 into bankruptcy.
Richter: 'We intend to fight'
Richter rejected the claims by the New York Attorney General and Microsoft, but did not deny the profitability of his enterprise nor the volume of advertising messages that Optinrealbig.com sends daily.
“We intend to fight it (the lawsuit) and it’s not going affect us,” Richter said. “It’s going to take an army (of lawyers).”
The New York Attorney General for the first time teamed up with the private sector to enhance its subpoena power with technology tools from Redmond, Washington-based Microsoft.
Microsoft, which has gone on the offensive against e-mail advertising touting everything from get-rich-quick schemes to pornographic Web sites, is developing anti-spam technology and waging legal wars against spammers. (MSNBC is a Microsoft - NBC joint venture.)
The company, whose MSN Internet and Hotmail e-mail services have millions of subscribers around the world, has said spammers clog its networks with traffic and hurt consumers with e-mails that appeared to come from a foreign government’s defense ministry, a hospital or elementary schools, among other purported senders.
The company said 2.4 billion, or 80 percent of the e-mails its users receive everyday, are spams. Research firm IDC estimates 7.3 billion junk e-mails are sent a day.
After investigating the messages, Microsoft was able to determine the senders of the messages, Microsoft General Counsel Brad Smith said.
“The finger is now pointing at them,” he said. “There is no doubt in our minds that the lawsuits today are being filed against the right people.”
Broader action
Microsoft said it filed five additional lawsuits against other spammers who allegedly used the same transmission path in New York that originally led investigators to Richter and the spam network.
Verizon Communications and Microsoft have previously brought suits against the world’s largest spammers.
“If these people have any money left ... we will be happy to pursue the remainder,” Smith said. “We need to send a strong message that this is illegal and doesn’t pay.”
Representatives from Synergy6 were not immediately available for comment.
Spam will cost American companies more than $10 billion in 2003, according to consulting firm Ferris Research. Albert Decker, director of security and privacy services at computer consultant EDS Corp., said the cost savings from reducing spam will be in the billions, simply from the improvement in productivity and reduction of processing work.
Microsoft and Spitzer said Richter and cohorts in Washington, Texas and New York are responsible for seven spam campaigns, which violate consumer protection statutes in New York and Washington.
On Tuesday, U.S. President George W. Bush signed into law the first national anti-spam bill, which bans some forms of junk e-mail and sets jail time and multimillion dollar fines for violators.
But experts say the new law is not likely to stop the torrent of unsolicited commercial e-mail, because it allows for businesses to send messages to anyone with an e-mail address as long as they identify themselves clearly and honor consumer requests to leave them alone.
In addition, some are concerned that businesses may outsource the work to people outside the United States to escape penalties. Spitzer acknowledged any such move would make his work harder, but told Reuters he is confident that the obstacles will be overcome “no matter it’s someone pushing the button in India, Egypt or Alabama.”
“The fact that someone else pushes the button doesn’t eliminate the liability of the person who is trying to make this a business,” he added.