Microsoft Sues 117 Phishers

An anonymous reader writes "Earlier this week Microsoft filed 117 John Doe cases today to learn the identity of scam artists who have been targeting its Hotmail and MSN customers in phishing scams, according to a Washington Post story. This is the same tactic the music and motion picture industries have used to mixed success against file-swappers, except in this case the ISPs themselves are some of the biggest targets of phishing scams. The story says the tactic has already worked once for Microsoft; in a case last year where ISP subpoenas led to a kid in Iowa who was caught phishing MSN users from his grandpa's dial-up account. The 21-year-old was ordered to pay Microsoft $3 million, but I doubt his job at Blockbuster is going to make a dent in that debt."

Comments

Chuck Barris would approve

[OSXexpert]

Somehow I think Chuck is rolling over in his grave approving of this post. Wasn't Zonk the type of candy in the 70s or possibly the term used for someone that was gonged out of competition during chuck's drug induced state of euphoric fun called the Gong Show :)

I've been playing too much Halo..

[NobleArc]

It says "117 John Doe", but I read "John-117", the name of the protaganist in Halo and Halo 2, published by MS. Weird.

April the first

[uspsguy]

I think I'll come back tomorrow then good, dependable returns to /.