Yahoo sues lottery spammers

by Steve Ragan - May 28 2008, 11:38

If you got an email from Yahoo recently telling you about a prize you have won, apparently it was fake. Yahoo said Tuesday, that they have filed suit against twenty-five companies and twenty-five individuals, each unnamed, over the incident. Next, they will tell us there is no such thing as a tracking code in the emails, and Bill Gates is not going to pay you for forwarding the information.

The “lottery” emails are simple and to the point. Anyone with half a brain would have picked apart these poorly written emails and see that you should not have to enter all sorts of information about yourself to claim a prize. This Phishing technique is old, and sadly still works. You would think, that Yahoo would sue over the fact people are defrauding their users, but no, Yahoo is suing over infringement.

“The complaint alleges that without permission or authorization, and with full knowledge and notice of Yahoo’s trademark rights, the spammers willfully masqueraded as Yahoo, and sent e-mails claiming that the recipient had won a lottery, prize, or other award from Yahoo,” a company statement said. Wow, to hell with the users, these criminals are falsely using Yahoo’s name!

"The unauthorized use of Yahoo's trademarks is misleading, fraudulent, and has actually confused, misled, and deceived the public. Yahoo! will vigorously enforce its intellectual property rights and will not tolerate lottery hoax emails," said Joe Siino, Senior Vice President, Yahoo! Global IP and Business Strategy.

Granted, in the press release Yahoo does say, “Yahoo! is 100% committed to protecting our users from fraudulent e-mail messages and this lawsuit sends a clear message to spammers.” The fact they filed the complaint under the Federal Trademark Act, the Federal CAN-SPAM Act, and related state laws, speaks for itself.

The kicker is, the persons and companies listed in the complaint are all unnamed. So was this lawsuit just a warning about the false email, and a public stunt to make Yahoo look good?

Phishing is a plague. However if you win a contest you do not need to give out a host of information including social security number, routing information for your bank, or your credit card numbers. Simple as that. All it takes is a little thought and you can see you are being had. Most of the sites used in the fake emails led to unsecured forms. That alone should have stopped most people who fell for this stunt from entering information.

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