Microsoft has announcedthat it’s suing a Hong Kong-based ringtone company, saying it phished and spammed its Microsoft Live Messenger users. The company, Funmobile is accused of sending thousands of spam messages via IM over the past 4 months. Microsoft wants an injunction against the company as well as monetary damages.

Microsoft said in the suit that Funmobile-doing business here as Mobilefundster, sent IM’s with links to a site called MeetYourIM. Those who clicked on it were brought to the site and asked to type in their MSN username and password. Upon doing so the company collected all the addresses in the users contact list and spammed them with the same message.

          “This kind of activity crosses the line from legitimate third party services to ‘parasiteware’ that harms our customers,” wrote Tim Cranton, a lawyer with Microsoft’s Internet Safety Enforcement group, in a blog posting.

Such spam is called “Spim” and can be particularly effective because it looks to the recipient like it came from a friend. The suit also claims that Funmobile used a fake MS support page as part of its phishing activities and directed users to porn sites.

Microsoft says they hope the suit will send a message to other companies thinking of using the same techniques. Funmobile has had no comment about the suit.