30% of service users have received 'spim,' Pew survey finds

March 2, 2005

By TERRY MAXON / The Dallas Morning News

The scourge of e-mail — spam — is threatening to become the blight of instant messages as well.

A recent survey by the Pew Internet & American Life Project suggests that about 17 million adults have received "spim" – spam that arrives through computer instant-messaging services.

Pew says 42 percent of the 134 million American adults online use IM. And of those, 30 percent have been spimmed, Pew says.

When spim does arrive, it's likely coming to a younger person. "Fully 39 percent of those under 30 who use instant messaging have gotten spim," Pew said in its report. "By comparison, 27 percent of the instant-message users between 30-49 have gotten spim."

The Pew survey found that 66 percent of online users under 30 use IM, compared with 35 percent of those over age 30.

In the first arrest involving spim, federal agents in Los Angeles grabbed an 18-year-old New York man Feb. 16 for alleging flooding an IM service with porn and mortgage ads and then attempting to extort money from the company running the service.

Authorities say Anthony Greco of Cheektowaga, N.Y., sent more than 1.5 million spim messages last fall to users of MySpace.com, a messaging site. Mr. Greco then took credit and asked for exclusive rights to send spim to MySpace users for $150 a day. The teenager allegedly threatened to show others how to send messages to MySpace's users unless the company agreed to his demands.

Mr. Greco arrived at Los Angeles International Airport expecting to meet MySpace's president to sign a contract. Instead, he was arrested by federal agents and charged with violating a federal anti-spam law, attempting to extort money from MySpace and damaging a protected computer.