New Hotmail strategy to deter spam

SEATTLE: Internet spammers sending mass e-mail advertisements -- ranging from get-rich-quick schemes to instant loans, often use free e-mail accounts at web-based e-mail services such as Hotmail to send their messages.

To limit such activity, Microsoft month initiated a rule that free e-mail users won't be able to send to more than 100 e-mail addresses in a 24-hour period, Microsoft MSN's lead product manager Lisa Gurry said. "We're limiting the amount of Hotmail (based) e-mail that a person can send on a given day," Gurry said, adding that the current new 100 e-mail limit was "well within the level that an average person would be able to send via e-mail." Paying users of MSN's Internet-access services have no e-mail limitations, Microsoft said.

According to Brightmail, an anti-spam software maker, at least two of every five messages sent over the Internet are spam.

 © Reuters