Well that was weird; I just got MSN'ed from a guy trying to sell his services to me - it was MSN user kimdesignernext@hotmail.com ... I couldn't remember where I'd heard the MSN name from before, and then it came to me. I'd previously been spammed by this user before, trying to sell their outsourcing service to me.

The conversation started polite, the user asked me how I was, to which I replied I was fine, and I asked how I could help the person.

Then I got a message back with the person asking if I had any web design projects; this is where I recalled the prior e-Mail. I simply said that I wasn't interested, sorry - and closed the MSN window.

I then got another message from this user with the smiley showing an angry face, and "why not" below it.. I ignored the message and closed the window.

The next message just astounded me; it quite simply said "Fuck You" .. that was it - nothing less, nothing more. I wrote back "Excuse Me?" but the message was bounced back to me; i'd been blocked.

Personally, I'd advise everyone to keep away from this person/organization.. highly unprofessional to say the least. I just hope now that anyone googling this guy's MSN comes across this post and steers clear of said user.

Do you ever get messages like this? Don't they annoy you?

I suppose I'm lucky that the user blocked me; it means they've probably deleted me too, so I'll hopefully not get any more.

It's not a great way of them getting work is it?

This is why I log on as invisible the few times I log on .. my friends know to try to IM me even if I am "offline" and if I reply - I am there ... and anyone else .. well obviously I didn't want to talk to them in the first place. ;) One thing I ran across recently was a woman who "mined" email forwards people sent around (jokes, hoax warnings, virus warnings, FYIs, and other such friends-passing-to-friends emails) and then used these emails to send out some solicitations for her real estate business. When I confronted her on this rather rude practice, she said I shouldn't be sending those things around if I didn't want to get my email address used!?! WHat the?!? Is that ballsy or what? And yes, the IM spammer sounds like someone I'll add to my block list out of principal! ;) Thanks for the head's up!

But then how are potential new clients supposed to get in touch?
There should be a thing similar to a do not call list ...

Viruses usually get rid of the problem.

Have them email you before they contact you. If you leave your MSN open to random people messaging you there's hardly any way to avoid your problem.