Top ISPs sue 220 alleged spammers

Four of the largest internet service providers (ISPs) in the US have begun legal action to crack down on spam.

AOL, EarthLink, Microsoft and Yahoo are suing around 220 individuals across four states alleging that they have broken the Can-Spam Act, which came into force on 1 January.

The act requires email advertisements to contain proper headers, contact information and options to unsubscribe.

However, the companies being sued are alleged to have broken these stipulations and used open proxies to hijack innocent third-party computers, through which they distributed spam.

The possible penalties for violating any of the above include imprisonment for between one and five years and/or a fine.

Jamie Cowper, technical consultant at messaging security firm Mirapoint, applauded the attempt to bring the spammers to book.

"This is finally putting pressure on these guys. Finally the law is being tested and on the face of it the ISPs have a good case," he told vnunet.com.

"It is great to see such a concerted attempt by companies who have the legal funds to pursue this."