Making good on their promises to try to fight spam, spyware and all of that kind of filth at every turn, Microsoft have over the last several months been taking part in an investigation to expose several spam rings. Seemingly, the operation consisted of Microsoft setting up various Hotmail "trap accounts" and monitoring messages. Hotmail seems like the perfect arena for that sort of thing, don't you think? With at least two or three mails reaching my Hotmail account every day offering me cut price Viagra or the opportunity to meet women in my area, Hotmail is perfect. Spam is out of control now, and it is very refreshing indeed to see Microsoft taking some kind of a lead in dealing with it.
Redmond-based Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT) assisted in the investigation, setting up "trap accounts" on its MSN Hotmail e-mail service last summer and monitoring at least 45,000 messages that allegedly were originated from servers run by the ring in Brazil, China, Korea and Taiwan.
Now, Microsoft's sting operation has apparently been a roaring success, and a suit law has been filed against an identified spam ring.