Filed under: Internet, E-mail, Microsoft
It's a story that beggars belief, a true case of Goliath smothering David with his voluminous backside, but believe it or not... it's true! Get this: a group of ingenious spammers are being sued by Microsoft for abusing Hotmail's Junk Mail Reporting Program and Smart Network Data Services.The lawsuit claims that the defendants used millions of Hotmail accounts to label spam messages as 'not spam'. Up to 200,000 spam messages were falsely filed every day. I thought this was just a case of defrauding the spam filter's Bayesian 'learning', where it compares incoming mail against a huge body of 'known' spam -- but there was a second stage in the spammer's attack! With this huge body of millions of falsely-reported emails, an associate of the spammers then contacted Microsoft to ask that these mail were no longer treated as spam. How downright dastardly.
Now, I'm British, so I automatically root for the underdog (which is usually us), but you do have to appreciate just how damn sneaky spammers can be. The Microsoft legal and policy blog makes a good point though: spam filters are vital in today's world. Spam isn't just a vehicle for Viagra spam! Viruses and malware ride the spam sedan too -- profiteering spammers make it easier for your friends and family to get infected, and for that they should HANG!
[via Ars Technica]
Microsoft sues spammers... for circumventing its anti-spam filters... originally appeared on Download Squad on Mon, 21 Jun 2010 08:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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