The software giant reportedly claims that the spammers discovered Hotmail accounts by using software that trawls through every entry in a dictionary and attempts to 'guess' passwords. The programme has, according to Microsoft, compiled millions of e-mail addresses, many of which are active.
At the same time, in an essay posted on its web site, Microsoft claims that there are currently no US laws expressly prohibiting the use of automated means to gather e-mail addresses without the owners' consent and urges the country's legislators to tackle the problem.
According to Microsoft, spam thrives because spammers face virtually no economic constraints. The company said that "sending e-mail is so cheap that spammers can turn a profit even if only one in 100,000 recipients responds".
Finally, Microsoft has said it will "intensify " its efforts to co-operate with ISPs in fighting spam.
ISPs are increasingly resorting to legal action to deal with spam. In December 2002, AOL won damages totalling almost $7 million in a legal victory against a company that sent over one billion junk e-mail messages to its customers advertising adult web sites.
Microsoft's essay on spam is available at:
www.microsoft.com/issues/essays/2003/02-12spam.asp