• May 28, 2008

Yahoo Tuesday announced it had filed a lawsuit against "lottery scam" phishers who send fraudulent e-mail messages to Web users telling them they have won a Yahoo prize. Yahoo said the e-mails aim to convince recipients to divulge their names, passwords, credit card data and other personal information.

"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," Joe Siino, senior vice president, Yahoo global IP and business strategy, said in a statement.

Yahoo, which filed suit in federal district court in New York, alleged that the spammers are violating the Can-Spam act, trademark law and other laws. The company doesn't yet know the names of the spammers, but anticipates it will discover their identities as the case progresses.

--Wendy Davis