Amazon.com and Microsoft announced the filing of several lawsuits against phishers and spammers who targeted consumers by spoofing Amazon.com's domain name and perpetrating phishing scams with spoofed Amazon.com Web sites. The companies, both located in Washington, worked together to identify the architects of these schemes, and are collaborating to test possible technical solutions that would make it more difficult to deliver fraudulent and deceptive email to consumers.

Amazon.com and Microsoft filed a joint federal lawsuit against a Canadian spamming operation allegedly responsible for sending millions of deceptive email messages, including email forgeries falsely purporting to have come from Amazon.com, Hotmail.com, and other domains (a practice called "spoofing"). The suit, filed in the U.S. District Court in Seattle, alleges that Gold Disk Canada Inc., located in Kitchener, Ontario, along with co-defendants including Barry Head and his two sons Eric and Matthew, mounted illegal and deceptive spamming campaigns that have misused Microsoft's MSN Hotmail services and forged the name of Amazon.com.

"Spoofing," or using a forged email address, is an illegal online marketing scheme that conceals a sender's true identity and falsely identifies someone else as the sender. "Phishing" is a tactic designed to steal credit card and other financial information from its victims. Phishers send fraudulent email that is disguised to look as though it comes from a respected company. The email message either asks recipients for confidential financial information or directs recipients to a Web site - designed to mimic a trusted Web site - where they are asked to input private personal data such as login information, passwords and credit card numbers.

In addition to the lawsuit filed jointly, the companies filed several lawsuits independently.

"The best way to stop spammers and phishers is to hit them hard in the pocketbook," said Washington Attorney General Christine Gregoire. "I am pleased to see Microsoft and Amazon.com team up and use our laws as they were intended. They pose a powerful legal threat and will send a strong message that there will be a high cost to pay for those who flood our mail boxes with irritating, offensive and fraudulent junk mail."

http://www.amazon.com/stopspoofing