Microsoft Sues Pump-and-dump Spammers

Dennis Faas's picture

Microsoft is suing three perpetrators suspicious of using hotmail networks to endorse stocks. "Pump-and-dump email scams are a form of fraud where the criminals purchase stock in a company -- typically an inexpensive penny stock -- and then promote the equity in millions of unsolicited email messages." (Source:

This quick and easy form of spamming is one of the more profitable styles at the present time. Those responsible for sending pump-and-dump emails gain monetary rewards, whereas Microsoft, on the other hand, is burdened with considerable costs.

Research focusing on the pump-and-dump email technique has rendered this strategy successful. In terms of dynamics, this form of spam allows spammers to realize 5 percent returns in a single day. "Because these scams are so lucrative, they've attracted some of the most technically competent spammers to develop new techniques. The pump and dump schemes are basically driving spam research and development." (Source:

Much of the research has focused around image spam email. This form of messaging deals with templates that infected PC's can use to create spam messages. The tainted emails are misleading since they look exactly like uncontaminated messages.

Another strength of image spam is its intelligent creators who have developed various methods to confuse spam filters. "They've added colorful backgrounds, wavy text, and filled their messages with nonsense text to try to evade optical character recognition technologies." (Source:

Because spamming crimes are committed electronically, Microsoft is unable to determine the names of the alleged spammers. The lawsuits were filed as John Doe cases so that Microsoft could name the parties when they are revealed. Charges against the defendants deal with violations of Washington state consumer protection laws, and disobedience of the federal CAN-SPAM act.

As a result of recent spamming innovations, it is easy to understand why Microsoft strives to protect itself through legal action. "Hotmail is heavily used and is viewed by the Web community as one of the most challenging spam environments right now." (Source:

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