Survey reveals instant messenger spam affects one in three IM users

• According to survey released Wednesday, nearly one third, or 17 million, of the nation's instant message users have received some kind of unsolicited message at least once.
• The Pew Internet and American Life Project contacted respondents by phone over a period from January 13 to February 9.
• The study, however, did not include those under 18, which is widely considered the biggest group of IM users.
• "The people who brought you spam...are trying to figure out whether this is a cash cow," Pew Internet Executive Director Lee Rainie said in the report.
• According to various studies, IM spam, or "spim", is indeed increasing.
• Data from IMLogic suggests that spim went from practically zero in 2003 to 5 percent of all messages sent in 2004.
• The content of spim messages vary, from scams similar to those in spam e-mail to hackers trying to gain access, or to spread viruses.
• Some spim will even be of a sexual nature.
• Both AOL and Microsoft are working on ways to combat spim on their services.
• For now, users can combat spim by using the feature in both networks' software to restrict who can contact them.
• But right now the feature restricting who can contact you works with 100% success and I don't see that changing.
• For e-mail I have a white list and it's also 100% successful.
• It took a while to setup but I get zero spam on it.
• The real issue is spam over the phone and the cell providers are as guilty of this as the spammers.
• They have clauses stating they can spam you at will within the contract, it's almost worth dumping cells for.
• Just place your finger on the block button and also use Ytunnel for yahoo.