First spam, now 'spim'
2004-04-01 08:02
Paris - A new form of internet spam, this time aimed at users of instant messaging (IM) services, is set to become a major nuisance, New Scientist warns in next Saturday's issue.
The phenomenon has been dubbed "spim" by experts, who reckon that this year 1.2 billion unsolicited messages will be sent over IM services run by Yahoo, MSN and other companies, and the volume will triple in 2005.
Seventy percent of "spim" is pornography related.
Unlike e-mail, IM software allows users to exchange messages in real time.
"This makes spim more insidious than spam because the messages pop up automatically, giving the recipient no chance of deleting them," the British weekly notes.
In 2005, some 35 billion e-mail spams are expected to flood the internet, according to an estimate made by technology market research firm Radicati Group, of Palo Alto, California.
Spim, although just a tenth of this total, will grow at three times the rate of conventional spam as mass emailers turn their attention to growing number of IM users.
- AFP