"Phishing" and "Spoofing" have come under attack from two of the largest online titans, Microsoft and Amazon.

They have launched a joint lawsuit against Gold Disk Canada. Allegations are that the company sent millions of emails claiming to be from Amazon or Hotmail (owned by Microsoft.)

The aim of spoofing is to fool spam filters into believing the e-mail is harmless.

Separately Amazon is trying to tackle this years hot item for Internet security, phishing.

A extension of spoofing, phishing involves sending emails to the customers of an organisation. When the email is opened the customer is forwarded to a false site set up to look the company's real site. The victim is then prompted for personal information such account numbers and passwords.

The most high profile sites to be attacked so far have been the banks. However they have been reticent in making attacks public. Amazon seems a little more upfront.

A possibility is that if Amazon is seen as unsafe, this would plunge the entire web into a sea of doubt.