Spam on MSN Messenger, also know as SPIM, is extremely rare and it’s a fairly simple process to ensure that you never receive messages from strangers.
To protect yourself from Spam:
- Open the main Messenger window, go to Tools > Options.
- Go to the Privacy tab and make sure “Alert me when other users add me to their contact lists” is ticked.
When someone tries to add you to their contact list, a dialog box will ask if you want to allow him or her to contact you. If this request is from a stranger or someone you don’t want to hear from, tick “Block this person from seeing when you are online and contacting you” and click OK.
To block unwanted messages:
- Open the main Messenger window, go to Tools > Options.
- Go to the Privacy tab, and make sure “Only people on my Allow List can see my status and send me messages” is ticked.
This will prevent people who are not on your contact list from sending you messages and stop block checkers seeing if you are really online.
That is all fine and good but it would appear that there may be a limit as to how many you can block.
I still get over 30 a day adding me and I cannot block any more.
Does anyone know the LIMIT on a block list?
Guys, it’s more insidous now,
I just got message SPAM from My own contacts!
(who were displayed as offline)
I replied with a question, and it kept on
sending me the same or similar link.
Not likely behaviour for my friends.
Any suggestions Daniel to stop this
new occurence?
(yes, I’ve done the privacy block thing)
And can’t find much more information around
this other than your suggested solution
which appears that these guys have worked
out a way to get around…
Hope anyone can help.
Alex
i have your same problem
likewise i have both options checked, but I still get spam messages from people who aren’t on my allow list. Blocking them doesn’t do any good because it’s just a new spam address next time.
This is getting ridiculous… Everyday I get about 6 or 7 messages from people I don’t know inviting me to some dating site or whatnot. I’ve clicked on both of the options as suggested but still I am receiving these messages. I wish there was some other kind of solution… Please let me know if there is anything else that can be done…
All of the spam messages I am receiving are from someone named “Greg – setauket– (two different numbers everytime)@live.com. It’s truly annoying!
add “All Other Users” from allow to the block list.
I wish there was a way to report these bots.
I’d prefer a way to set them on fire on live TV. Maybe pay-per-view, get some reimbursement for all the annoyance they cause.
Best way to go about this is to set your Privacy option to “Allow only users on my buddy list to contact me.”
OMG im getting about 6 or 7 of theese now ands its making me so mad… and of course you have to jump through hoops to send microshaft an email about it…
now that Yahoo! and Microsoft can message each other, does anyone on Y!IM get spam like Microsoft? wouldn’t it be better just to switch cause you could just move all your friends over from your MSN and i don’t think they’d know the difference other then accepting you as a friend again…
I’m starting to get these, its starting off slowly, only a few a day, but i will not be surprised if it continues to grow. If it does, i will try what willy suggested.
I didn’t even see that “all other users” entry in allow list…woops. Good call Chewie…
I am getting them from my own contacts too. Have done everything above but still happenning. Any ideas?
my friend started sending me spam then i got tricked into it by putting my msn email and pass and now i am giving spam to other people. how to solve this?
To Richard and jc and everyone else. Change your password to msn on a regular basis. Servers and bots who hijack your account to send spam use your own account details so the thing to stop them is naturally to change your details where it is applicable.
I have those privacy settings to allow only those on my allow list to IM me. I am still getting over 15 spam messages a day. I left my work computer on over the weekend and I had 47 when I came in this morning. What is going on? Anyone have a fix?
i have been getting these mails with links from ppl on my contact list have done all the above and been changing my paswword daily but still getting them it is driving me round the twist now just want it to stop
I get between 5 and 15 IMs with links to porn or dating sites every day at home. I don’t want to disallow users not on my contact list from IM’ing me, I lust want to block IMs that contain links, “httpd:/” or “www.” from people not on my contact list. That should take care of the SPIM IMs while still allowing new people that I know to find me and IM me on messenger. I am also now just starting to get the same kind of spam on skype. a couple a day now and growing.
you faggots probably have no antivirus
The only way to stop this annyoing BS is to stop using MSN & Live Messengers. When Micro$soft starts losing millions of their messenger users they stop getting advertising dollars and they will figure out a way to stop the SPIM. Until then they obviously don’t give a rat’s ass.
What this site says worked for me. Look at chewies post as well.
Anon…antivirus has nothing to do with this…you fail.
Ok… move the “all other users” from your allow list to your block list under the privacy tab. It should stop the majority of this SPIM crap. I would love to get my hands on the low life that does this for a living…. good luck all
It doesn’t help when you are using Trillian. There is no way that I have seen to get rid of the spam other than marking myself invisible. That’s productive.
@AngelDemon
you can technically go to Blue MSNBubble->Connection Preferences->Privacy and check the “only people on my allow list”
But it doesn’t seem to be working for me. No more then 5 minutes after I set that I got more spim.
It does not help either when using Pidgin. I get about 15 spim a day.
My main problem is that my friends keep getting SPAM messages from my MSN even though I have stopped using is, and uninstalled it over a year ago.
How can I stop the spammers using my account name? I have asked MSN to remove my account, but to no avail.
@anon: seems you faggot finally found an anti-virus that makes you proud and dicky.
I get them too.. I logged onto my msn and there’s a nasty thing with saggy nasty things hanging down to her knees god help with this crap and how do u get these anyways..msn..sucks
I get the same thing as well, from only one friend on my list. I have an Antivirus and there is already a checkmark in the Only Allow List can see my status and send me messages. My Antivirus does not come up with anything. Maybe the other person doesn’t have that checked then, on their end?
I only get it from him, and since then he had gone to Yahoo, because I had told him about the problem and he said that he has all the security that he needs on his computer and nothing comes up on his end either. I just close his window when the SPAM sends me a message. I don’t even open the link, as it may cause a virus. I am going to delete and block him, since he is on Yahoo now.
So really are they hijacking into his account for “Him” to send me these so called SPAM links?
the problem is smiley central if u hav aded any emoticon they are the hackers
SPIM comes from particular contacts for me so its on their end, get them to run an up to date spyware scan. People just need to browse the net to get it. Agree with kw, installing emotions etc can put spyware on to cause this.
Good measures, privacy and allow. Instead of the spam going to me, it goes to my mail. Quite liked the Tools-Options-Privacy-View. It shows who is on your list, both friends and blocked.
I am getting porn spam through someone I have known for years…His He pops online, send str8 porn out and closes again…. its like he’s been hijacked (and neither of us are str8!!!)
You know, if it was the right kinda SPAM I would might enjoy it.
my contact has changed his password 3 times too and it just keeps coming back…. isn’t this illegal??
Help me help a friend stop some moron from ruining the internet for mankind (and maybe animalkind one day too). Cause…… this sucks!
hey guys, im getting pretty much the same problem as you all, but this time, spam messages are automatically being sent to everyone on my contact list by me as well!!! i tried doing a virus scan on my computer then uninstalling messenger and reinstalling, and theyre still moving around!! i keep getting this link:
foto? ha ha http://photos-browser.com/gallery/images.php?=matthewjepson@live.co.uk
this keeps cropping up and the last part will have the contact’s own email address…. what do i do????? some people have opened it and when they talk to me it causes my messenger to partially crash!!! please help!! how can i stop this spam from spreading to other people????
Had the same problem and fixed it by changing the account email and password.
First things first – scan your system with an antivirus, then a adware program. Check also for rootkits, they’re getting popular.
But the most important thing if you’re sending the spam, change your password! This usually stops it cold, as they just happened to guess your password (please, no dictionary words!) not use any malicious software.
please Help me , I am 13 , I dont know , my friends and my Relatives says that they get spam messages from me , even I am not online , Plzzzzzzzz help me
i keep getting all them links aswell and so does my pals and my pals say im sending it to them to but i cant change my password because i cant remember my sercurity details so how the hell am i gonna do that please let me no thnx
Hey, one of the best ways to screw up your MSN and start spamming all your friends is to use your Hotmail or MSN passport account to log into third party websites. If you read the fine print, what often happens is the third party uses your logon info and steals all your contacts. Then, all your contacts get spam and it could easily coming from your address. One example of such a service is the “Check who had blocked you on MSN”. This is not a Microsoft partner site, but rather just an email harvester.
You SHOULD know not to use passport password on third party sites. If you’ve basically given your logon info away to some spammer, well the only thing I can suggest is change your password, and apologize to all your friends for signing them up for spam.
Thanks for the heads up, Krod. I knew about fake login sites but wasn’t aware people used that method.
I think the trick here is in understanding what part you play in the process. If you are recieving the SPIM (not spam) you need to let the person sending the SPIM know they have the problem. That is provided you know the person sending the SPIM. If they have been Botted or Hi jacked they need to fix thier problem.. you can do nothing at your end to prevent recieving the SPIM save Blocking that contact. You can deal with it by advising them and then moving them to the blocked list untill they send a mail advising you the problem is fixed, at whicjh point you can move them back to unblocked.
If you are the person sending the spam:
Visit the Windows Live ID sign in website.
Enter your Windows Live ID credentials, and then click Sign in.
Go to Password, click Change.
Follow the on-screen instructions.
Do yourself a favour and create a Strong Password. It’s easy, start with somthing you know you will never forget, like your favourite cartoon charicture. Change one of the letters in the charicture name to a capital letter. Add the number 01 to the end of it and then add a special charicture to the end. The number is the bigest key. when you are prompted or required to change the password just use the same one you started with but change the 01 to 02. and next time 03 and so forth.
This will clear some of your SPIM problems as far as sending them. You still need to get a good spyware and rootcheck done because someone got your info and it’s a good chance you have spyware. Just because it is free does not mean it doesn’t come with a cost. Make sure the antispyware program is reputable and well known. CCcleaner and spybot Search and Destroy are good but both have limits. You would be doing yourself a huge favour by either updating an existing licenced copy of your antispyware/virus programs or go buy one. You will save yourself a lot of grief.
Hope this helps.
I get this 167 times a day from my mates!!
got message SPAM from My own contacts!
(who were displayed as offline) !!!!DO NOT OPEN MESSAGE’S IT CAN BE TROJAN OR ANY VIRUS ,ITS BEING SEND FROM CONTACTS TO CONTACTS SO YOU ARE WARNED..
Same problem with John. I get shits from someone in my lists…weird & kinda fucked up…
Tell all your friends to change their password:
The stronger password the better.
e.g: YouRPassWord9546ENd
A combination of uppercase and lowercase letters and numbers.
A strong password should contain more than 6 characters.
SPIM comes mostly from hijacked accounts, SO CHANGE YOUR PASSWORD TODAY!
Spread this to as many contacts as possible!
my kids keep getting links to porn sites if there is no solution then i am deleting msn from my computer
any solutions guys
As said above, let all contacts change password and bloack all other contacts………
the problem is a worm called im.sohanad which infects yahoo and messenger run spyware doctor to get rid of it
i think the problem is that you get a mess from someone on your kontaktlist to go to a link an see a pic of you,there you are asked to enter username and password to see it,after that messenger starts to send mess to your kontakts,even if you are offline,so ask all of them to change the password
Well its my good old dad who’s been spimming the hell out of me. I’ve changed my passwords just incase etc and all that jazz. I’ve sent him all the information he needs – lets see if he listens to me now!!