Internet Providers File Suits to Stop Spammers

By SAUL HANSELL

Published: March 11, 2004

"We will follow the money,'' said Nancy Anderson, above, of Microsoft, seen here conferring with Mike Callahan of Yahoo.

Four major Internet providers announced yesterday that they had filed lawsuits meant to shut a number of leading senders of unsolicited junk e-mail, or spam.

The suits, which are seeking monetary damages and injunctions against further mass e-mail messages, are among the first to invoke the new federal antispam law, which went into effect Jan. 1.

So far, the law has not done anything to stem the torrent of spam. In February, 62 percent of all e-mail was spam, according to Brightmail, an e-mail filter company. That is up from 58 percent in December. . . .