Spam's Ugly Cousins: Spit and Spim

Every single person with an email address knows the painful annoyance of spam. Unfortunately, spammers are no longer happy with invading your inbox...they want your cellphone, your blog, your instant messenger (spim) and even your phone.

Users of web-based telephones should get ready for the next version of spam (also known as spit) to hit their systems soon. ?Spit? ? spam over Internet telephony ? is beginning to surface as more people make phone calls over the Internet instead of regular phone lines, security experts say.

And if you think that the number of Internet-phone subscribers is too low to matter, you better think again. There will be nearly 1 million Internet-phone subscribers in the USA this year, up more than seven times from 2003, says market researcher Yankee Group. By 2008, the number will swell to 17.5 million. There are currently 179 million traditional phone lines and 178 million cellphones in the USA.

Read this USA Today article for more info: http://www.usatoday.com/printedition/money/20041110/1b_spit10.art.htm