A U.S teenager has become the first person to be arrested on suspicion of sending unsolicited instant messages--or spim.

Anthony Greco, 18, was lured from New York to Los Angeles under the pretence of a business meeting. He was arrested upon arrival at Los Angeles International Airport last Wednesday.

Greco allegedly sent 1.5 million messages advertising pornography and mortgages. According to reports, the recipients of the messages were all members of the MySpace.com online networking service.

In a further twist upon the scam, Greco had allegedly threatened to share his methods for spamming members of the group if MySpace.com didn't sign an exclusive marketing deal that would have legitimized the messages he was sending via the service.

Greco believed he was flying to Los Angeles to cement that agreement with MySpace President Tom Anderson.

MySpace.com launched IM for its members in December 2003. Reports claim Greco began spamming members using the service in autumn 2004.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Brian Hoffstadt confirmed the arrest was the first criminal case brought against an individual sending spam over IM. But he warned there may well be more to come.

"We're just beginning to get the tip of the iceberg. This could be a new wave as online communities start up," he said in a statement.

Experts have warned in recent years that spim will be the next area of development for those looking to further exploit access to users' desktops and bombard them with unwanted messages, but its growth has been slow.

The immediacy of instant messaging and its growing popularity with businesses and home users means spam via the medium could theoretically become even more obtrusive than email spam.

Will Sturgeon of Silicon.com reported from London.

Good, fuck that asshole. Nobody messes with myspace

hahaha
awesome!

i can see the use for advertising porn through myspace, but mortgages? most myspace users live with their parents

SUBJUGATE said:

So he is smart enough to spam 1.5 million people but he is stupid enough to think his shitty blackmail/extortion attempt was gonna work? What a fucking retard. It's like on Dave Chapelle when he goes to the intervention for the free crack.

Lamer.

is this the dude that pretended to be next door nikki and raven riley?

This kid's a fuckin retard but, he's facing 9 yrs in federal prison. You can kill somebody, maliciosly, and get less time in a less violent prison.
9 Yrs is a bit extreme.

what the fuck is spim?

seriously though, that kid shoudl kill himself.

DaveFromTheGrave said:


i'm guessing the instant messenger version of spam

Kalopsia said:

cool shit happens when you read.