If you have WinXP or Win2000 you've probably gotten a few of the messenger popups(the internal windows messenger not the MSN messenger).

Anyway here's the common one I tend to get.

"Did you know there is a easy one-click way to stop this type of Pop-UP forever? For free information visit http://www.byebyeads.com"

This time around I actually decided to go to thier site just to see how ridiculus they were and it was even worse than I thought.

"Messenger Spam and Threats

-There are no laws that can stop this form of spam so the government is powerless to stop it.
-Messenger Spam is one of the fastest growing forms of spam.
-Your computer is open to possible internet viruses through this break in Windows.
-Messenger Spam is increasing daily and you are bound to get more every day if you have not already started too.
"

Well I don't know about the no law bullet point. But as far as the fastest growing form of spam this seems ridiculus since I tend to only get spam from the people who want me to buy software to prevent it! And the virus threat is even more ridiculus since the messenger only allows you to send and recieve text messeges, which means they can't execute scripts, run programs, or do anything malicious but waste your time and a minimal amount of bandwidth.

"Order ByeByeAds today to block those ads and protect your computer for a ONE TIME fee of only $24.95(£17) . Unlimited use, no restrictions, blocks ads, and protect your computer for one low price!! "

25$? That's ridiculus. I'll tell you what people I'm going to give you the ultimate deal here. I'm going to tell you how to stop this spam for free!

1.) Just open up your command prompt(Click Start, click run, then type in command and hit enter.)
2.) At the command prompt type: net stop messenger

After a few seconds it will tell you that your messenger service has stopped and now you should no longer get that kind of spam. Note: It seems this only disables the messenger for your current session so you'll have to redo those steps everytime you reboot. I'm sure theres some way to change the default but at the moment I don't know.

Oh and for all those that want to know how to send the messages you just use the command
net send (IP or computer name) (message)

You can only use a computer name to send messages over a LAN otherwise you'll need an IP.

One last thing if you want to re-enable it for some reason(maybe for it's original purpose ie sending and recieving messages) the command is net start messenger