Fake lottery emails fetch Yahoo! $610 million

Instances of scam emails aren't rare; and in some selective cases major corporations get dragged in, too, after miscreants in disguise lure unsuspecting users with fake promises of lottery wins. Yahoo!, according to a CNN Money report, in one instance, we'd rather say, instances sued several imposters going by the name of "John Does".

Scam busted..

Now, a New York district court has acted upon Yahoo! complaints and has passed a judgment in its favour. According to the ruling passed by Federal judge, Laura Taylor Swain, Yahoo! will receive $610 million as damages for the e-mail scams. Scanning through the internet records, reportedly these scammers have been traced to Nigeria and Thailand. The imposters lured unsuspecting users with the Yahoo! logo to strengthen their scams. Reportedly, between December 2006 and May 2009, 11.6 million hoax emails were sent from the e-mail system.

Elaborating further, the $610 million, which Yahoo! will receive as damages is inclusive of $583 million (a total of $50 received for every scam e-mail sent), and the remaining $27 million is for the trademark infringement.