Microsoft Helps Bust Mass. Spam Ring

With the investigative help of Microsoft's Internet Safety Enforcement team, Massachusetts Attorney General Tom Reilly has filed a lawsuit against a spam ring accused of sending hundreds of millions of junk e-mails each month. Nine defendants were named in the lawsuit - seven individuals and two companies.

Microsoft says the seven spammers operated out of Russia and Boston, using domain names registered in Monaco, Australia and France and servers in China, Korea, Brazil and Taiwan.

Microsoft general counsel Brad Smith praised Reilly for his spam enforcement efforts. "We applaud Attorney General Reilly for his strong leadership and sustained anti-spam efforts because spam is not just annoying, in this case, it's illegal," said Smith.

In order to help stop such spam rings, Microsoft sets up specific "trap" Hotmail e-mail accounts that it monitors for incoming spam. When the account received 45,000 messages from the Massachusetts spam ring, the company turned over the evidence to Reilly.

The recent legal maneuverings are the latest in a string of lawsuits attempting to put pressure on spam kingpins. Microsoft has already helped bring spammers to justice in Washington, New York, Texas, Florida and California. Microsoft also previously worked with Reilly to file the first lawsuit under CAN-SPAM, the bill making spam a federal crime.