Yahoo Files a Lawsuit against Lottery Spammers

Posted by Rightcopywriter Team

May 29, 2008

Yahoo has sued unidentified spammers who were trying to deceive people into disclosing personal information through e-mail scams by claiming they had won a prize or lottery from the Web portal. The personal information included social security as well as credit card numbers.

Accusing the defendants of breaching the federal Trademark Act, Can-Spam Act and related state laws, Yahoo filed the lawsuit in U.S. District Court in New York. The suit was filed against “Yahoo lottery spammers” as it does not name specific defendants.

The suit includes 25 unidentified companies and unidentified individuals each, and was filed on May 16, as per a company statement released lately.

Yahoo is trying to identify the identities of the spammers, few of whom may be situated outside the boundaries of the U.S. The spammers made use of third-party e-mail providers, like the Earthlink and The Go Daddy Group, to allegedly send deceptive e-mails to the Internet users, stated the court documents.

With this litigation, Yahoo Mail aims to protect its users and the public from any such fraudulent activity, said VP of Yahoo Mail, John Kremer.

Inspite of years of anti-spam efforts, problems related to this kind of activity continues to cause worries as marketers and criminals have been using it constantly. According to security experts, 80% to 95% of e-mail sent across the internet is spam.

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