BEWARE OF SPIMMERS

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By Raina Kelley

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Your buddy John sends you an instant message: take a look at his Web site. So you click through. In seconds, a virus has hijacked your contact list. Soon after, your company's servers are overloaded. You've been "spimmed"!

Spam in e-mail isn't new. But as barriers to it have succeeded, spimmers have taken fresh aim at IM. It's particularly nettlesome since that IM from John wasn't really sent by him; a spimmer had taken over his contact list. The best protection: be wary of clicking on IM links to any Web site.

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