Redmond, Washington — In a striking move intended to combat the spam and pishing contributors to the process of undermining the security and privacy of Windows Live users, Microsoft, last week said that it had instituted a legal action against Funmobile Ltd., accusing a Hong Kong-based company led by Christian Heilesen and Henrick Heilesen.
The Redmond, Wash.-based software maker last Thursday filed a civil lawsuit in King County Superior Court in Seattle against Funmobile, Mobilefunster, and several individuals, who according to Microsoft is accountable for the intentional misuse of the service to gain the personal information of its users.
The civil lawsuit in general "alleges that Funmobile Ltd. has employed a deceptive campaign to undermine the privacy of Windows Live Messenger customer accounts and to spam our customers’ contacts. We originally filed the case in June as a "John Doe" complaint that did not identify specific defendants. As part of today’s action, we are asking the court to grant an injunction to help stop this activity immediately to protect our customers. We are also seeking to recover monetary damages," revealed Tim Cranton, associate general counsel, Internet Safety Enforcement.
"Such instant messaging spam can take the fun — and utility — out of instant messaging," Cranton, wrote on his blog.
He added that so-called "spam" is dangerous.
"Cybercriminals know that for many Internet users, the threat of spam is not yet widely understood," he said. "Spam is more than just an annoyance. It is a serious threat to online privacy and security. Spam campaigns that employ phishing tactics to get your account information can put all the personal information associated with your account at risk."
This lawsuit marks the latest incident in which Funmobile has found itself in hot water.
The company is also banged with a number of lawsuits relating to its billing practices, with customers claiming that it wrongly slapped them with unauthorized charges for mobile phone content. At least three lawsuits are in appeal, while a fourth is pending.
Funmobile did not return requests for comment by press time.
According to the filing the Redmond company considers the actions of Funmobile as having affected it adversely and is seeking for injunctive relief, statutory damages of $5,000 per violation as well additional damages. According to the software titan, Funmobile allegedly applied a scheme targeting Windows Live Messenger users with instant messaging masquerading as coming from an email address of a friend or acquaintance.
All victims were invited to click on links included in the messages.