Microsoft, Amazon Slam SpammersMicrosoft, Amazon Slam Spammers

In an escalating legal battle, Microsoft and Amazon.com Inc. are bringing their combined weight to bear on spammers and phishers. The Seattle-area companies disclosed Tuesday that they are collaborating in several lawsuits aimed at individuals and companies they say are targeting their customers with fraudulent E-mail offers.

In a federal lawsuit filed jointly in U.S. District Court in Seattle, Amazon and Microsoft allege that Gold Disk Canada Inc. spoofed users of Amazon, Hotmail.com, and other domains by sending E-mail messages that gave the false impression they originated with those domains.

In addition, Amazon filed three other suits in King County Superior Court in Seattle alleging unnamed individuals engaged in phishing schemes against its customers.

And Microsoft filed a suit against Leonid Radvinsky and his two companies, Activsoft Inc. and Cybertania Inc., against whom Amazon had previously taken legal action. Microsoft claims Radvinsky sent deceptive E-mail to MSN Hotmail customers, including messages that appeared to have come from Amazon.

Just last week, Microsoft filed a lawsuit against Cheapbulletproof.com, charging that the Web-hosting company had assisted spammers by hosting some of Web pages that were part of their scheme. Microsoft has filed about a dozen suits against alleged spammers in the past month alone.