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Friday, April 1, 2005

The lawsuits, filed in U.S. District Court for the Western District of Washington, accuses the "John Doe" defendants of using mass e-mail or pop-up ads to coerce consumers into revealing personal information such as bank account information, passwords or social security numbers.

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The Redmond-based software company said it filed the lawsuits in hopes of uncovering some of the largest operators.

In phishing scams, the Internet-based communications often purport to be from legitimate organizations, such as banks, and use that perception of a trusted relationship to get people to reveal personal information.

To avoid such identity theft, experts warn that users should be wary of giving out any personal information via e-mail or pop-up ads, especially if someone contacts them unexpectedly. Users also should be wary of clicking on e-mail links, which could divert a user to a malicious site that will then steal personal information.

Shares of Microsoft rose a penny to close at $24.17 in Thursday trading on the Nasdaq Stock Market, near the low end of a 52-week range of $23.82 to $30.20.

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