Microsoft files civil suit against Texas spammer

You have to give a round of applause to Microsoft for this piece of news. Apparently, they have sued a Texas spammer for violating the CAN-SPAM laws passed here recently. Personally, I hope that Microsoft nails their butts to a wall!

Microsoft filed a civil lawsuit against two men accused of running a host of spam companies that sent out millions of spam messages that violated the federal Controlling the Assault of Non-Solictied Pornography and Marketing Act (CAN-SPAM).

The Redmond, Washington, company joined Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott in suing Ryan Samuel Pitylak, a student at the University of Texas, Austin, and codefendant Mark Trotter in a lawsuit filed Friday in a federal court in Seattle. Microsoft (Profile, Products, Articles) accused Pitylak and Trotter with setting up shell companies that sent tens of millions of illegal spam messages to Internet users over its network, according to a company spokesman.

On Thursday, Pitylak and Trotter, of California, were named in a civil suit filed in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Texas in Austin. The men set up a number of Nevada-based shell companies, including Leadplex Inc., Payperaction LLC, and Eastmark Technology Ltd., to distribute spam, according to the suit. Together, the companies made up the fourth largest illegal spam operation in the world, according to a statement by the Texas Attorney General.