Yahoo gets tough with lottery scammers

Yahoo is suing a group of unidentified companies and individuals loosely called the "Yahoo Lottery Spammers" for running email scams that sought victim's personal information and extorted money from purported winners.

Yahoo filed the suit in US District Court for the Southern District of New York on May 16, court records show. Yahoo released a news announcement regarding the suit on Tuesday.

The lawsuit targets 25 unidentified companies and 25 unnamed individuals. Yahoo is trying to identify those responsible for the scams, which used third-party email providers such as Go Daddy and EarthLink, according to the suit.

How successful the suit will be is questionable. Tracking down spammers can be notoriously difficult. If the spammers are located outside the US, legal complications can arise.


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