Microsoft's ad-backed free e-mail service Hotmail said that a federal court awarded a default judgment and a permanent injunction against three spammers in a suit Hotmail filed last January.

The defendants, LCGM of Madison Heights, MI, and Palmer & Associates and Financial Research Group of San Diego, CA, were found to have forged the "hotmail.com" domain name into the return addresses of unsolicited commercial and offensive e-mail messages, Hotmail said.

The court found the spammer's activities violated several federal and state laws, including trademark infringement laws and the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act.

Presiding Judge James Ware entered a default judgment against LCGM and ordered it to pay Hotmail $275,000 for damages resulting from its activities. The judge also entered a default judgment against Palmer & Associates in the amount of $55,000, and a $7,500 default judgment against Financial Research Group.

Ware issued a permanent injunction against all three of the defendants prohibiting them from using the Hotmail mark, the Hotmail.com domain or engaging in any other activities that would confuse or deceive the public into believing any of the defendants were in any way associated with Hotmail. The judge also prohibited the defendants from using Hotmail's systems for any purpose.

"This is a great win in our extensive efforts to make Hotmail a spam-free service," said Randy Delucchi, director of customer support for Hotmail. "We want the Internet community and our members to know that Hotmail has zero- tolerance for spam . . ."