NET LOSS: A gang of hackers at work. The homepage of Yafoo! that mimics the popular search engine Yahoo!

Microsoft has announced that it is launching legal action against more than a hundred “phishing” gangs, which seek to trick e-mail users into revealing passwords or credit card details and then use them to commit fraud.

The software company said that the lawsuits will begin throughout Europe, Africa and the Middle East within the next three months. The first 53 cases will be launched this month and will include action against phishers in the UK, Germany, France, Sweden, Spain, Austria, Morocco Egypt and Turkey, the company said.

The legal proceedings will include lawsuits and formal complaints to law enforcement, according to a Microsoft spokesman.

Neil Holloway, Microsoft’s president in Europe, the Middle East and Africa, said that the action will be part of a wider campaign against phishing and other forms of online fraud.

“Microsoft’s global phishing enforcement initiative works in partnership with law enforcement, multiple industries and governments to educate consumers, prosecute criminals and develop technology solutions to address the threat of phishing,” he said.

“Phishing is a crime (that) undermines consumers’ trust in the internet and is an impediment to European policy-makers’ and industries’ efforts to boost citizens’ use of innovative and valuable internet services,” he added.

The campaign will target gangs that flood inboxes with unsolicited e-mails requesting bank account details, passwords, credit card details or other personal details that can be used for identity theft and fraud.

Messages often purport to come from banks or other trusted institutions. While most people ignore them, phishers need responses from only a tiny proportion of recipients to make a profit. Banks say that they never request passwords by e-mail.

Although such fraud has no direct impact on Microsoft’s software business, phishing gangs frequently have links to software piracy, which costs Microsoft at least ?250 million per year in the UK, according to the company. Last month, Microsoft launched a campaign of education and enforcement aiming to reduce that figure.

Microsoft may also be concerned that fears about online crime put some people off using computers and the internet altogether.

Michael Rotert, president of the European Internet Services Providers Association, said, “Phishing is a threat to all online industry stakeholders’ efforts to increase the availability and take-up of online services.”

Two weeks ago, AOL began legal action against 30 phishers using laws recently introduced in Virginia, USA. The suits seek $18 million (?11 million) in damages.

The Times, London