Spam and spim are unsolicited advertisements that can also urge users to visit websites. Those that are sent via email are called spam; those sent using instant messaging (IM) services is called spim. For the most part, spam and spim are just annoying just like junk mail.

Spammers and spimmers, the people who send out the spam and spim, buy lists of email addresses and IM screen names or use automated programs to search the Internet for them.

SpIT (Spam over Internet Telephony) is voicemail spam. A spitter is a person who fills a voicemail box with bogus voicemails.

Blog spam is the use of unsolicited advertisements on blogs. Splogs are not the same as blog spam. Splogs are blogs where the articles are faked to increase search engine rankings. To generate traffic to the splog, the scammers send out spings (spam pings) to blog users. Sping messages masquerade as ping messages, which are alerts that tell bloggers their favorite website have new posts.

The best way to deal with spam and spim is to delete the messages and use filters, which most email and IM services now offer. In IM, block incoming messages from unknown senders. Anti-spam software can help eliminate spam and other malicious email thus mitigating the impact of spam on the network and email servers.