Three Richmond residents, who have an extensive online presence related to the online video game World of Warcraft, have been sued by software giant Microsoft for "perpetrating a massive 'click fraud' scheme."

Microsoft is seeking in excess of $750,000 in damages from Eric Chuen Lam, 23, his brother Gordon Lam, and their mother, Melanie Ma Lan Suen, in a lawsuit filed Monday in the United States District Court in Seattle.

The trio, who live on Jack Bell Drive, are accused of "engaging in a widespread scheme" that generated "invalid clicks" on online advertising.

Specifically, click fraud refers to when a person, automated script or computer program imitates a legitimate web surfer without having actual interest in the target of the click.

Each time a legitimate web surfer conducts a search on Microsoft's Live Search search engine site, the results page that pops up includes advertising space on the margins, as well as other non-sponsored results. For every time a browser clicks on these sponsored links, the advertiser pays a specified amount to Microsoft.

By scheming to click on competitor's ads, the trio are alleged to have conspired to exhaust or deplete the competitor's advertising budget.

And by doing this, it allowed the trio's advertising to appear higher on these same keyword-based search pages, thereby driving more traffic to their own websites.

Through the alleged scheme, the trio obtained increased user traffic for their own ads at a much lower cost and caused substantial damages to Microsoft, the lawsuit alleges.

The alleged fraud was uncovered following complaints in March of last year by advertisers in the auto insurance industry.

An ensuing investigation by Microsoft led to the discovery that Eric Lam stood to uniquely benefit from the auto industry scam, as well as a similar one involving the World of Warcraft, a multi-player on-line role playing game that has an audience of millions around the world.

The scope of the fraud forced Microsoft to issue $1.5 million in credits to auto insurance and World of Warcraft advertisers.

"Apparently to divert suspicion from his own activities as the source of the fraudulent activity, Lam himself complained to Microsoft about the incidence of click fraud on the Microsoft Network, and, he too was issued a small credit by Microsoft before Microsoft knew Lam himself was behind the click fraud scheme," the lawsuit states.

The trio are alleged to have benefited to the tune of more than $250,000, the lawsuit claims.

Calls to the Lam's home were not answered.

Eric Lam is the owner of the website www.mmoinn.com, where World of Warcraft players can purchase virtual gold, for use in the videogame. For example, 15,000 gold units can be purchased for $275 U.S., and then used to purchase training and to buy and sell online goods. Players can earn their own gold through their on-line play, but some choose to short-cut the system by purchasing the virtual gold instead.

Microsoft is also seeking that the trio cease the click fraud, which has damaged Microsoft's reputation, as well as cost it hundreds of thousands of dollars.