Catmandu

Spim? No, its not a typo

March 31 2004 at 02:27PM



Paris - A new form of Internet spam, this time aimed at users of instant messaging (IM) services, is set to explode, 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 email, 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, about 35 billion email 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. - Sapa-AFP


http://www.iol.co.za/index.php?click...8B251&set_id=1

Deafness

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VamPyroX

That's what happens when AOL accounts are "phished"! What do I mean by "phish"? It's when you manage to "hook" or hack someone's AOL account using an AOL account you're on. After the "catch", the user usually signs on that victim's AOL account and then continue to "phish" for more. Those who are most likely to be "phished" are the ones who are gullible and reply to messages that say:

"Hello, this is the AOL Support Department. We need to confirm your account. Please give me your account name, password, and credit card number to confirm it. Thanks."

Of course, there are people who actually fall for that damn thing and end up losing their accounts.

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Catmandu

Yes, I heard about that, too! Oh that just makes me so mad! My mother-in-law is somewhat a computer illiterate, but smart enough about using the Emails. Anyhow, she came across to that Email from Verizon (fake) and she called my husband to see what was that about. Hubby knew about this and said to her "delete it asafp!"

Can't win huh?

CatoCooper13

My Mum's a near computer illiterate as well -- has had to ask for help for any simple things on the computer, but she's able to use the Email program within AOL. Been trying to convince her to try getting out of AOL and use an ISP, but she's too scared to move on away from AOL as she's used to it and considers it easy to use.

I also have a mate who's just gotten a computer for the first time and just last night, he asked me what those messages he was getting via ICQ -- those spammed http links that takes him to porno sites, were all about and how could he deal with it.
I tried explaining to him how to block those un-authorised people who were requesting to get his authorisation to get onto his buddy list, but to no avail. So, have to fix it up for him when I see him and his partner over the weekend.

My Mum in law -- she's a voracious user of computers, but she's forever screwing up her computer settings and ends up having to format her hard drive and start from scratch again and again! My husband reckons that she should be banned from owning a computer! (In the past 3 years...she must've had her hard drive formatted like 10+ times! Can you believe that!???)

I must admit that SOME people shouldn't be allowed access to a computer!

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Catmandu

Gee, sounds like she hasn't really learned her lesson from the first place huh? I agree, she shall be banned!

CatoCooper13

Tell me about that! But on the other hand, I feel sorry for her because she's spent nearly 10 years battling a phobia of going outside of her house, so she spent a lot of time at home and the computer was one of the few things she could keep herself occupied.
(Long story on how she obtained the phobia....)

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Catmandu

Understood... Good thing she has people like you to take care of her computer problems! Hope she has Antivirus, spyware, spamfilters and the like to take care of most of the problems?

CatoCooper13

Oh, definitely...hubby made sure she had all those programs installed on her computer...but despite that, she still manages to screw things up on it,

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Catmandu

How about putting a mousetrap on her mouse?

CatoCooper13

Tooo funny!! I reckon that'll be futile cos she'll know how to take it off!

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