Microsoft Sues Five Companies for Malicious Advertising

From DailyTech: When some hear that Microsoft is suing a series of companies over malicious advertising, some might assume that it has finally taken Apple to court over its somewhat misleading "Get a Mac" commercials. This is not the case; but Microsoft has indeed sued five companies. It says that the targeted companies are publishers of malicious online advertising used to spread malware and scareware.

Recent security reports by Microsoft indicate that "scareware" is on the rise. Scareware is essentially digital snake oil -- a software product purported to provide protections, but which really does little or nothing. Scareware proprietors going to great length to warn users of the dire threats that face their computer -- threats which they claim to have the best protection against.

Microsoft accuses five companies -- "Soft Solutions," "Direct Ad," "qiweroqw.com," "ITmeter INC" and "ote2008.info“ -- of abusing its AdManager service, that lets business owners manage their own advertising. It filed suit on September 18, seeking a court order to shut these businesses down.

The suit is the latest step in Microsoft's legal battle against the visible face of the cyber-fraud and cybercrime. Earlier this year, Microsoft’s Internet Safety Enforcement Team filed a civil lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for Western Washington over click-fraud scammers that were attacking auto insurance and World of Warcraft commercials. And earlier this year Microsoft also sued Hong Kong based FunMobile for using Windows Live Messenger for "spimming" -- sending instant messages with links to malicious content.

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