Spam. We all get it. Hundreds of emails sent to you every day, poorly written just like this post. They attempt to sell, scam, pester or advertise to you in the most ludicrous ways! Spam has been around for years and has taken over our email inboxes. Quiet honestly it's something I hate, yet don't find interfering. This is because our email clients have been smart enough to detect spam and block irrelevant emails for years now. SPIM, on the other hand, is less frequent but a much more major annoyance.

Messaging spam, as it is also known, targets instant messenger users from usernames it expects to be using a specific service. Bots will then attempt to add you, mimicking as new contacts. Once added them will target ads towards your interests, based on the information where it discovered your email address. Of course they are persistent, and difficult to spot.

The problem has been exacerbated by the increase in Messenger bots, and how easy they are to create and distribute. Over the past few weeks, I've seen several forums posts with people claiming several SPIM bots have added them to Messenger. the andyman himself has had 23 bots add him in the space of 3 days.

Luckily Microsoft have already created a solution, implemented in the new Windows Live Messenger 9. Although the feature is still incomplete, and the version still not publicly available, it is only a matter of time before SPIM bots spread to a wider market. Remember to protect yourself, don't post your IM address or username in a public forum or website, where bots are likely to pick it up.