News Corp.'s (NYSE: NWS) social networking site MySpace filed a lawsuit against the Spam King today, who the firm alleges flooded millions of its members with unsolicited messages.

The alleged spammer, Scott Richter, is said to have violated several state and federal anti-spam laws by gaining access to several users' accounts and sending messages to all their friends, advertising a number of products.

To gain access to the accounts. Richter set up phishing scams, where he would send out emails and messages to users, posing as a MySpace official requesting password information.

Hemanshu Nigam, MySpace's chief security officer, said in a statement Monday that the service is committed to protecting our community from phishing and spam. He added that if it takes filing a federal suit to stop someone who violates the law and damages our members' experience, then that's what we'll do.

The suit aims for monetary damages and an injunction banning Richter from MySpace.

The amount of money sought by MySpace has not been disclosed, though Richter was already ordered to pay $7 million in a 2003 lawsuit filed by Microsoft for spam.

Shares of News Corp. rose 48 cents, or 2.01 percent, to close at $24.32 on the New York Stock Exchange.

Cybercrime