Intensifying its fight against unsolicited junk e-mail, America Online has filed five federal lawsuits against more than a dozen companies and individuals it claimed sent "junk mail" to its users, seeking $10M in damages.
AOL, the Internet arm of AOL Time Warner, said the targets of its suits were responsible for sending its members an estimated 1 billion pieces of spam that generated more than 8 million complaints, according to the newspaper.
Internet users have characterized spam, which clutters inboxes with pitches for everything from pornography to ways to lose weight, as one of the biggest annoyances of using the Web.
AOL and rivals including EarthLink Inc. and Microsoft Corp."s MSN have unveiled new tools and products to fend off spam -- but it persists.