It seems to me that spammers are getting more and more creative.

One of the most recent spams I received was actually through two IM conversations. The first was on GTalk; I have a GTalk account set up specially for BeLink’d to communicate with clients et cetera without utilizing my personal account. Well, I received a friend request; not sure what it was, I accepted.

Later that day, while working on a site, I received an IM asking if it was a good time to discuss web development software that I had been solicited in the past over my work line. I told said marketer to please remove me from their contact list when they initially called me, and now I was being IM’d by them.

And that wasn’t the last time. I also use Skype for personal, and received a friends request from a random person. I add them… and it turns out to be yet another marketer. Wonderful. Blocked and removed; the major annoyance, however, is that now they attempt to message me and send me notifications, which are… excessively annoying.

The major problem with this type of spam is that it invades a person’s personal space. While one of the IM accounts was strictly for clients, the other aws a personal account. I feel that solicitation over IM should be strictly prohibited. In addition, I feel that the FCC should have much stronger regulations concerning telemarketing. As it stands, calling a cellular number (such as my work line happens to be another cellular number, as I never honestly know where I will be at any given time) is prohibited, in addition to the constant harassment I have received from this company.

Will I pursue legal action? Only if the harassment continues from this specific solicitor. I’m growing pretty weary of them trying to email and call me; I have a hard time answering my work line as it stands because it tends to be one of their marketers. Frankly, their selection of someone to pursue is a poor one. I already have all of the web development software which I need, and am NOT looking to purchase more. Further, I am one who does not answer to harassment like this. It is poor marketing technique to consistently harass people with your product to this point, as I certainly will NOT be purchasing from Photon International (or whatever their company is named).

In addition, in response to all of the spam comments I have received to this blog from similar scrapers, I am looking at taking some time out to insert some shape or form of Captcha. I have already enabled Akismet; in the past, I didn’t need it as terribly as I have been lately.