The Texas attorney general has filed a lawsuit against a Kailua man accusing him of sending unsolicited "spam" e-mails to residents of Texas and others throughout the country.

The lawsuit was filed yesterday in Texas against Billy W. Williams. The lawsuit said Williams lives on Kupau Street in Kailua and has been flooding computers with unwanted e-mails for at least a year.

Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott said the state is seeking damages from Williams that include fines of $25,000 for each day that an unlawful e-mail was sent and $20,000 for each violation of the Texas Deceptive Trade Practices Act.

Williams could not be reached for comment yesterday.

Abbott said the lawsuit was part of a national effort against spam e-mail. He said Williams sent the e-mails through a Web server in Dallas from January to December 2004, and that Williams also sent more than 37,000 e-mails from a third-party server.

Abbott said Williams' offerings include mortgage refinancing, prescription drugs, anti-spyware computer products, vehicle extended warranties, online diplomas and other items. The lawsuit alleges that Williams does not sell these products or services, but is affiliated with marketing companies that pay him a commission for referring customers to the actual seller.

Williams uses "trick" subject lines to get people to open the e-mails, Abbott said. Some of them: "Order Confirmation. ...," "You still planning on coming over today," "Man, did you see that on TV?" and "About last night."

Abbott said Williams also confuses consumers by "taking extreme measures to hide his identity." In addition to using third parties, Williams designs his e-mails so the recipient has no way to request his or her name be removed from the list, Abbott said.

Reach Curtis Lum at culum@honoluluadvertiser.com.