Before sliding into DMs was a thing, there was spim—and one teenager learned the hard way that nobody wants their inbox flooded with unsolicited garbage. On February 21, 2005, Anthony Greco became the first person in the United States arrested for sending spam via instant messaging, a practice that earned its own portmanteau: "spim" (spam + IM).

The 18-year-old from Los Angeles had been bombarding America Online users with thousands of instant messages hawking his website. We're not talking about a few annoying pings here and there—Greco allegedly sent over 1.5 million spam messages using hijacked AOL accounts and automated bots. His messages promoted a website that, ironically, claimed it could help people make money online. The only person making money was Greco himself, at least until the authorities caught up with him.

Breaking New Legal Ground

What made this case unprecedented wasn't just the sheer volume of spam. It marked the first criminal prosecution under California's anti-spam laws specifically for instant messaging abuse. Prior to this, spam legislation primarily targeted email. Greco faced charges of violating California Business and Professions Code sections that prohibited deceptive and misleading advertising, as well as unauthorized use of AOL's computer systems.

The arrest sent shockwaves through the early instant messaging ecosystem. AOL was particularly aggressive in pursuing spimmers, having filed numerous civil lawsuits, but Greco's criminal charges represented an escalation that got everyone's attention.

The Wild West of Early IM

To understand why this was such a big deal, you need to remember that 2005 was peak instant messaging chaos. AOL Instant Messenger (AIM) dominated the landscape, and its popularity made it a prime target for abuse. Unlike today's messaging apps with sophisticated spam filters and verification systems, early IM platforms were remarkably vulnerable.

No two-factor authentication or robust account security
Easily automated through third-party scripts and bots
Minimal spam filtering compared to email systems
Direct access to users' attention without intermediary filters

Spimmers exploited these weaknesses relentlessly, and Greco was just one of many—he simply had the distinction of being the first to face criminal consequences.

What Happened to Greco?

Following his arrest, Greco faced potential penalties including fines and jail time. The case was ultimately resolved through a plea agreement, though the specific terms weren't widely publicized. More importantly, his arrest established legal precedent that yes, you could absolutely go to jail for spam, whether it arrived in an email inbox or a chat window.

The prosecution also sent a clear message to other would-be spimmers: authorities were catching up to internet-age crimes, and the law applied to instant messages just as much as any other form of communication. In the years that followed, spam over IM gradually declined—not because spammers developed ethics, but because platforms implemented better defenses and the legal risks became too high.

Today, spim feels like a quaint relic of internet history, largely replaced by spam on social media, text messages, and messaging apps like WhatsApp. But Anthony Greco's dubious claim to fame remains intact: the first person arrested for making instant messaging a little less instant and a lot more annoying.

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