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AOL Time Warner has filed five lawsuits accusing users of spamming its subscribers with junk e-mail, according to the The Wall Street Journal's online edition Tuesday.

The spammers have sent about 1 billion spam messages, generating about eight million individual complaints from users via AOL's "spam report" feature, the WSJ said.

Two individuals were named by AOL: Michael Levesque of Issaquah, Washington, and George Moore of Linthicum, Maryland.

The other defendants are named as "John Doe" because AOL has not yet been able to identify them, the report said.

Seeking Damages

The lawsuits seek damages of more than $10 million, plus an end to the messages, the WSJ said.

AOL has also begun targeting spammers who use its Comcast and Road Runner residential broadband services.

The fight against spam may affect some legitimate users, who should contact their service provider for exemption if they find their messages being blocked, the WSJ said.

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