Instant Messaging Applications
Instant messaging systems, such as Yahoo! Messenger, AIM, Windows Live Messenger, Tencent QQ, ICQ, XMPP and Myspace chat rooms, are all targets for spammers. Many IM systems offer a directory of users, including demographic information such as age and sex. Advertisers can gather this information, sign on to the system, and send unsolicited messages, which could include commercial scam-ware, viruses, and links to paid links for the purpose of click fraud. Microsoft has announced that the upcoming Windows Live Messenger 9.0 would support specialized features to combat messaging spam. In most systems users can already block the vast majority of spam through the use of a whitelist.
Read more about this topic: Messaging Spam
Famous quotes containing the word instant:
“When my hoe tinkled against the stones, that music echoed to the woods and the sky, and was an accompaniment to my labor which yielded an instant and immeasurable crop. It was no longer beans that I hoed, nor I that hoed beans; and I remembered with as much pity as pride, if I remembered at all, my acquaintances who had gone to the city to attend the oratorios.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)