The term spim, sometimes also written spIM, first appeared in 1999 as a blend of the word spam and IM, the abbreviation for instant messaging. In 2004, the New Scientist reported that spam and spim had been joined by the new blend spit, spam sent over Internet Telephony (a method of making phone calls using the Internet instead of conventional telephone lines). Spit is the latest in the plague of unwanted messages threatening to bombard unsuspecting Internet users, and there is already some evidence for new senses of the nouns spitting and spitters, which describe the activity and the perpetrators respectively.

The term spim, sometimes also written spIM, first appeared in 1999 as a blend of the word spam and IM, the abbreviation for instant messaging. In 2004, the New Scientist reported that spam and spim had been joined by the new blend spit, spam sent over Internet Telephony (a method of making phone calls using the Internet instead of conventional telephone lines). Spit is the latest in the plague of unwanted messages threatening to bombard unsuspecting Internet users, and there is already some evidence for new senses of the nouns spitting and spitters, which describe the activity and the perpetrators respectively.