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Microsoft sues 117 over 'phishing'

"Microsoft Corp. has filed 117 lawsuits against unknown Internet site operators who used "phishing" schemes to obtain personal and financial information from unsuspecting consumers, the world's largest software maker said Thursday."

The Federal Trade Commission and the National Consumers Leagues joined Microsoft in the lawsuits filing "John Doe" defendants.

Read entire story at CNN Money.

Posted on Thursday, 31 March 2005 @ 21:34:32 UTC by Robin (1177 reads)
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Re: Microsoft sues 117 over 'phishing' (Score: 1)
by Snail on Friday, 01 April 2005 @ 02:10:28 UTC
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Often scam artists pose as banks or other legitimate businesses,

Why are they not filing suit then instead of M$?

sending out millions of e-mails or pop-up Web advertisements with requests that the recipient update their account information but instead direct them to fake sites.

Clearly a case of fraud. So again, why is the FBI not involved instead of M$?

Redmond, Washington-based Microsoft said it was filing John Doe defendant lawsuits in U.S. District Court in Washington state in an attempt to establish connections between worldwide phishers and discover the largest-volume operators.

So now M$ controls the US federal investigations division and plans to control these other criminals on their own?

We must work together to stop these con artists from misusing the Internet as a tool for fraud, Aaron Kornblum, Internet safety enforcement attorney at Microsoft, said in a statement.

Interesting, coming from one of the largest pirate corporations in history...

Microsoft has been engaged in a three-year fight against virus writers, hackers, spammers and Internet scam artists, saying that any harm against personal computer users could hurt Windows, the operating system that runs on more than 90 percent of the world's PCs.

Guess they should make a better product then... Mac and Unix are not plagued like this.

Microsoft was joined by officials from the Federal Trade Commission and the National Consumers League who used the lawsuits and Friday's April Fool's day to encourage consumers to beware of these online schemes.

What better a day then to make idiots out of ones self.

Phishing is more than a dirty trick played on unsuspecting consumers -- it's a serious identity theft problem, said Susan Grant, director of the National Consumers League's National Fraud Information Center and Internet Fraud Watch program.

Very true... so why then is the NCL and FTC turning to an even larger group of underhanded, conniving, thieves?

Some scams are becoming more sophisticated, with some including what looks like a legitimate Internet address link but once clicked on by the user, they are instead directed to a different, fraudulent site asking for personal information.

Wow, because M$ is so incompetent as to allow the IDN exploit continue, when freeware tools have existed for years that prevent it, the NCL thinks M$ should be of help in this matter?

Earlier this week, Microsoft said it was working on a new identity system for Windows that would store users' personal information on desktops and keep them secure when they shop or access services online.

The same bullshit security promises M$ has been making for how many years now?

The officials encouraged consumers to be suspicious of unexpected e-mails seeking personal data, to not click on links in those e-mails, and verify contacts from institutions that claim a person is a victim of identity theft.

The use of a tool implies the proper knowledge of that tool. Anyone educated as such already knows this.

Microsoft (up $0.04 to $24.20, Research) shares edged higher in afternoon trading on Nasdaq.

Only because M$ has yet to replay the more then $1 Billion in already court ordered fines.

Deduct that amount, and then consider the literal tens of thousands of criminal charges against M$, and they are not worth so much.

Clearly, this a case of a bigger group of thieves not liking competition from a smaller group of thieves.
Further, this is a case of the US government demonstrating their ineptitude when handling M$.

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