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Yahoo reports that 2% of all IMs sent on its messenger service are spim, which is the new word for spam sent via instant messaging.

A total of 582 billion IMs were sent worldwide in 2003, according to the Radacati Consulting Group--and that adds up to a lot of spim.

Though people receive far more spam than spim, spim can be even more annoying.

While efforts to curb spam in e-mails have been progressing, the spim problem is just starting to explode.

Ferris Research estimates that twice as much spim was sent in 2003 as in 2002.