A Weblog About Topics and Issues Discussed in the Book Spam Kings by Brian McWilliams

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The mounting onslaught of email pitches for porn, pills, and penis enlargement has some techno-pundits declaring that spam is on the verge of destroying the Internet. In Spam Kings, author and investigative journalist Brian McWilliams delivers a compelling account of the cat-and-mouse game played by spam entrepreneurs (including the notorious Davis Wolfgang Hawke, "Dr. Fatburn," and Scott Richter) in search of easy fortunes and the cyber-vigilantes who are trying to stop them.

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February 24, 2005

The hype over spim

Trillian logoA number of news reports, helped along by media-savvy prosecutors, are positioning the recent arrest of teenage spammer Tony Greco as a significant milestone in "spim," or instant message spam. Many of the articles suggest IM spam is about to flare out of control.

This pegs my hype-meter. As I explain in The Hype Over Spim, a new op-ed for BetaNews, IM spam has been around for roughly seven years, and all along "experts" have predicted spim is about to rage out of control.

It hasn't, and it probably never will. Here's why.

Posted by brian at February 24, 2005 9:12 AM

 

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