■ Internet fraud
Angling for phishers
Microsoft has filed 117 lawsuits against operators of "phishing" websites that try to trick unsuspecting Internet users into handing over personal financial information, a statement said Friday. The company filed the lawsuits in federal court in Seattle against unnamed defendants in the hopes that they will allow Microsoft to subpoena information about operators of the sites, track e-mail and establish links among worldwide phishing scams, company attorney Aaron Kornblum said. The lawsuits reflected growing concern about the toll of large- scale phishers, who send out millions of e-mails a day purporting to be from trusted banks or other companies and institutions. The e-mails direct recipients to websites that are often indistinguishable from genuine company websites and ask them to fill in personal details, including passwords and credit card information. It only takes a tiny response rate to net the perpetrators millions of dollars, and experts warned that Internet users never should give out personal information in response to an unverified e-mail, however real it might look.
■ Management
VW investigation dropped
Prosecutors said Friday they have dropped an investigation into management at Volkswagen AG in connection with continued payments to former employees elected to public office, because the company broke no laws with the practice. Volkswagen acknowledged in January that it had six top legislators on its payroll and said it would stop the controversial payments. The breach of trust investigation has ended because management at the carmaker did not break any laws or overstep the scope of the board of a public company, said Hans-Juergen Grasemann, a spokesman for prosecutors in Braunschweig. German legislators work full-time and receive salaries. The practice of receiving payments from former employers doesn't violate the rules of German parliament if legislators report their earnings.
■ Auto industry
Nissan's CEO leaves IBM
International Business Machines Corp said Carlos Ghosn, chief executive of Nissan Motor Company Ltd., resigned from the IBM board. In a press release Friday, the computer company said Ghosn resigned in light of his broadening responsibilities in May, when he also becomes president and chief executive of French auto maker Renault SA. Ghosn has been credited with boosting results at Nissan, the Japanese affiliate of Renault, and will be leading both companies simultaneously. Ghosn became an IBM director in March 2004. His resignation is effective Friday.
■ Ocean dumping
CEO sentenced
A US federal judge Friday sentenced the chief executive officer of an Iowa shipping company to 33 months in prison for directing the illegal dumping of 440 tonnes of fuel-contaminated wheat from a freighter into the South China Sea. US District Judge Alan Gold also ordered Rick Dean Stickle to pay US$60,000 in fines for dumping the oily grain in 1999. Stickle, chairman and chief executive officer at Sabine Transportation Co of Cedar Rapids, Iowa, was permitted to remain free on bond pending an expected appeal. The wheat, intended for distribution by humanitarian group CARE in Bangladesh, was contaminated by diesel fuel leaking into one of the freighter Juneau's main cargo holds. The company asked for permission to dump the grain at sea but was told that doing so violated US law.
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