Top ISPs sue to stop spam

Four top ISPs yesterday launched suits under a new US federal law aimed at shutting down leading spammers.

Microsoft, AOL, Earthlink and Yahoo have all filed suits in their home states seeking monetary damages and injunctions. The companies are working together to stop their lawyers falling over each other.

The suits will also allow the ISPs to subpoena records of banks, telephone companies and others that can help them identify the spammers. A Microsoft lawyer reportedly said: "We will follow the money, and the money will show us where these people are."

Currently, only three of the suits are against named individuals or companies, another 220 are against 'John Doe' - spammers that the ISPs can't yet identify.

In the named suits, AOL is going after Davis Wolfgang Hawke, a former head of the Knights of Freedom Nationalist Party. He founded Amazing Internet Products in Manchester, New Hampshire, to sell pills, vitamins, car warranties and information on how to create false identities.

AOL said that its case is based on more than 100,000 complaints by its users.

Microsoft is suing JDO Media, which runs a multi-level pyramid marketing scam.

Yahoo! is suing Golddisk.net and related companies based in Canada. The companies have reportedly sent 94 million emails to Yahoo! users this year, offering mortgages, insurance and travel services.

Microsoft has previously used the anti-spam laws of individual states to pursue spammers with little effect.