According to the Washington Post, AOL has filed the suits in a federal court in Alexandria, Virginia, seeking a total of $10m (拢6.36m) in damages as well as a halt to spamming. The suits have been filed under anti-spam and computer fraud laws.
The Post reports that AOL, the biggest internet service provider in the US, is using member complaints as the basis for action. Other ISPs that are undertaking legal action against spammers include Yahoo!, MSN and Earthlink.
AOL is also supporting a piece of legislature designed to outlaw spam. It has issued a statement saying: "We will continue to work together with other ISPs and policymakers to ensure that spam legislation has 'real teeth', and provides the weapons needed to enable and empower AOL and other ISPs to pursue the most egregious and offensive spam violators -- those who continue their daily spam attacks using the most fraudulent and evasive methods."
While email marketing is seen as a legitimate use of the medium, it has been overtaken by pleas from the sons of Nigerian dictators, miracle weight-loss pills, and penis enlargers. Email addresses posted on the internet are used as targets for spam, but some spammers can automatically generate possible email addresses to target addresses that are not published on the net.
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