Merrill tamer's spam war

An internet firm which allegedly swamped more than 500 million email users with unwanted "spam" advertisements for flowers, baskets of fruit and household appliances may have met its match in New York state's crusading attorney general, Eliot Spitzer.

Mr Spitzer, fresh from eliciting $100m and major concessions from Merrill Lynch over the relationship between its investment bankers and its analysts, has filed a lawsuit against MonsterHut, an internet advertising firm, accusing it of fraudulently telling its clients that emails would be sent only to computer users who had asked to receive them.

"This lawsuit is the next battle in our continuing fight against online fraud, and an attempt to help consumers maintain control of their email inboxes," Mr Spitzer said in a statement.

"We are seeking to prevent MonsterHut from continuing its fraudulent, deceptive and illegal practices."

More than 750,000 people had requested that their names be removed from MonsterHut's lists, the attorney-general said, and tens of thousands had complained to PaeTec, its internet access provider. PaeTec had tried to wash its hands of MonsterHut in the past, but in March last year, a New York judge granted MonsterHut a restraining order forcing its provider to continue sending emails advertising websites, including ProFlowers.com, an online florists', and Giftbaskets.com, a purveyor of "unique gift ideas for any occasion". At the time, Todd Pelow, MonsterHut's chief executive, told reporters: "PaeTec is painting us to be spammers and we're not."

More and more US states are introducing legislation specifically targeting spammers. In California, all unsolicited email must by law carry opt-out instructions and information for contacting the sender, though MonsterHut, which was last known to be based in Niagara Falls, has said that its emails did so.

Mr Pelow and his chief technical officer, Gary Hartl, are also named in the suit. But where millions of New Yorkers had apparently failed, the two succeeded yesterday in shielding themselves from unwanted communications.