Animal rights activists involved in an intimidation campaign against GlaxoSmithKline shareholders could have their e-mail accounts suspended, MSN, the Hotmail service operator, said on Tuesday.

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The Campaign Against Huntingdon Life Sciences, an animal rights group, has sent letters to individual GSK shareholders warning them that their details will be posted on the internet unless they sell their shares within two weeks. They are also told to e-mail the protesters to tell them they have done so.

But yesterday MSN said that, if it received reports that its “conditions of use” had been contravened, it would launch an investigation and consider suspending accounts. Although the e-mail service provider said it could not comment on individual cases, it added that it could not “condone the use of the Hotmail service for unlawful purposes”.

GSK, which is a customer of Huntingdon Life Sciences, said yesterday the number of shareholders who had reported receiving a letter from CAHLS had risen from 50 to 157. It is the first time individual shareholders in the pharmaceuticals industry have been targeted.

The National Extremism Tactical Co-ordination Unit (Netcu), which is investigating the letter campaign, said it was in the process of determining whether the contents of the letter broke the law. Legislation against animal rights extremists was tightened in July with the introduction of the Serious Organised Crime and Police Act. This makes it illegal to intimidate the staff of companies involved in animal research, or to disrupt their business operations either by targeting third party suppliers or their families. It has since led to a significant reduction in the number of criminal acts committed by animal extremists.

To date there have been nine arrests of seven individuals, three of whom have been charged under the act, which carries a maximum five-year jail term and an unlimited fine for offenders.

Netcu played down fears that the previously unknown CAHLS was a new more militant activist group, saying it was more likely to be individuals linked to existing groups trying to revive interest in the issue.

Stop Huntingdon Animal Cruelty, previously linked with campaigns against Huntingdon, denied any knowledge of CAHLS.

Netcu said: “It is a common tactic to make it look as if there are more extremist than there are. The groups come and go. It is the individuals who are the concern. In the same way they use the internet to make themselves look larger than they are, they also do it with organisations.” Netcu said there were 40- 50 activists in the UK responsible for acts of intimidation and they were backed by several hundred supporters.

Yesterday it appeared that the actions by CAHLS had made little impact on Glaxo, with shares in the group closing 18p higher at £15.57.

One shareholder said she would be undeterred by the actions of extremists. “As an investor I realise that with any medical breakthrough there is a lot of testing that goes on in the background. As long as research follows guidelines and is properly licensed, people like myself understand that it is the only way we are going to get new medicines.”