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"Spim" is Latest Online Annoyance

Posted by CowboyNeal on from the pissing-in-the-modem-pool dept.

Pcol writes "The Washington Post reports that 'Spim,' as people are beginning to call unsolicited instant messages, is the latest sign that online marketers will seek to take advantage of other communication tools, not limiting themselves to spam or pop-up ads. The good news is that it's not easy for spimmers to send unsolicited instant messages. Instant message providers like AOL, Microsoft and Yahoo have a lot of control over their instant message networks, and since they look at their IM offerings as gateway services that help draw customers in to their paid Internet offerings, these firms are already committing resources to making sure the spim problem never reaches the same scale as spam." Even without the providers assistance, many people who use IM systems are smart enough to limit incoming messages to those from their buddy lists. Still, there must be enough of a success rate to move spimmers to continue messaging users.

3 of 292 comments (clear)

  1. This has been going on for years by Metasquares · · Score: 4, Informative

    Remember those weblinks you used to get from strangers on ICQ? This is hardly a new and emerging trend.

  2. Meh, relatively easy to get around. by DrEldarion · · Score: 5, Informative

    I have AIM set to only allow people on my buddy list to contact me. If you're not on it, to you it looks like I'm offline. Not possible to get "spim" this way, unless it's one of my friends sending it.

    The only problem comes when someone that's NOT on my buddy list wants to talk to me. Usually it's not a big deal, they can just e-mail me and I'll add them to the list later. It is somewhat inconvenient, but better than getting 10 IMs a day telling me to go to porn sites.

    There's a middle ground, which is asking for your authorization before it shows the IM window, but I never found this to help - it was always too tempting just to click the "see message" button to see what they were sending me. So that didn't really help much.

  3. Strangers are just spimmers you haven't met yet.. by Channard · · Score: 4, Informative

    .. which is why using the 'hide name' feature on AIM or whatever your using solves the problem rather neatly. Anyone who you want to IM with can still IM as long as they know your name, but casual browsers can't see you.