IM Spam

from the it's-coming... dept

I'm not a violent person normally. However, reading about people who are creating programs to help people send IM spam makes me want to reconsider that. The article discusses how more and more spammers are targeting instant messaging programs. I stopped using ICQ a long time ago, but apparently, that one is the worst for receiving spam. In the article, they talk with someone from the company "MassMess" who has created software to spam users of Yahoo Messenger. What amazes me is that these guys seem to know it's wrong, but just don't care. They scrape IM names off of directories and put them into their list. Sooner or later they expect Yahoo to figure out how to block them, but in the meantime they don't see any other reason to stop.
Hide this

Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.

Techdirt is one of the few remaining truly independent media outlets. We do not have a giant corporation behind us, and we rely heavily on our community to support us, in an age when advertisers are increasingly uninterested in sponsoring small, independent sites — especially a site like ours that is unwilling to pull punches in its reporting and analysis.

While other websites have resorted to paywalls, registration requirements, and increasingly annoying/intrusive advertising, we have always kept Techdirt open and available to anyone. But in order to continue doing so, we need your support. We offer a variety of ways for our readers to support us, from direct donations to special subscriptions and cool merchandise — and every little bit helps. Thank you.

–The Techdirt Team


Reader Comments

Subscribe: RSS

View by: Time | Thread


  • identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 12 Mar 2002 @ 10:53am

    ICQ

    I had just created an ICQ account when I received my first offer to join a erotic group or some crap like that. I mean this was within five minutes of creating the account! ICQ was off my PC in record time.

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Phillip, 12 Mar 2002 @ 5:20pm

    Learn how to use the software

    I use ICQ but never get any spam. Simple: tick the "only accept messages from people in your contact list" box. It's also easy not to get email spam, just use ASK. Let me put it this way, if you put your phone number in every phone box you are going to get odd calls therefore make yourself ex-directory.

    Phillip.

    link to this | view in chronology ]


Follow Techdirt
Essential Reading
Techdirt Deals
Report this ad  |  Hide Techdirt ads
Techdirt Insider Discord

The latest chatter on the Techdirt Insider Discord channel...

Loading...
Recent Stories

This site, like most other sites on the web, uses cookies. For more information, see our privacy policy. Got it
Close

Email This

This feature is only available to registered users. Register or sign in to use it.