You SPIM Me Round...

Yes, that wasn't a 'spelly' [spelling mistake], I did write SPIM rather than SPIN, why? Well, read on and all will hopefully become clear, or at least slightly clearer?

No, I not going to blog about the record entitled: "You Spin Me Round (Like a record)" from the group "Dead or Alive" [fronted by "Pete Burns"] that was a number one hit for them back in 1985. Instead first I'm going to tell you about SPIM and what it is, and then I'll show you the latest twist in SPIM that I received this very morning.

All set? Sitting comfortably? Good, then I'll begin.

What is SPIM?
SPIM is simply SPAM sent via Instant Messaging [Yahoo, MSN, ICQ, AIM, etc.] instead of by e-mail. Someone though that if they fused the name SPAM and IM, creating SPIM that it would be a 'cool' name. The same naming technique was also applied to SPAM sent via VoIP, creating SPIT, yes it makes me want to, I can tell you! ;-)

So, now you know what SPIM is, I will cover the latest twist the spimmers are using. You can see an example I received this morning in the screenshot below:



I expect that many of you have seen something similar arriving via e-mail? Yes, it is a so-called "Pump-n-Dump" spam/scam. The Bad Guys and Girls buy stock at rock bottom prices and then SPAM [or SPIM] out messages about the stock to encourage people to buy it, shortly after they sell their stocks making a tidy profit in the process. This leaves the other stock holders [who acted on the stock tip] with stock that is quickly de-valued once more, and they usually then have to sell it at a loss.

So, in summary this particular use of SPIM [for Pump-n-Dump] is new. I just hope that this is not being generated by a botnet, as is the case with the equivalent SPAM that I see by the bucket-load. If it is being generated via botnets, then this is a new technique that I haven't seen used before, for SPIM, at least.

If anyone has seen any other interesting SPIM then please feel free to send me a screenshot and I'll post the most interesting ones here in a few weeks time.

BTW, the lyrics for the song can be found here, for those of you that like that sort of thing. ;-)