AIM got hacked?!

[benhar]

Someone was using my AIM username last night sending rude messages to my friends. Is this a common thing? Is there anything I can do to prevent it?

 

[Broncho]

Well, I'm not sure if this applies to AIM, but I know there are trojan viruses out there that steal an AOL screen name and password. This happened to my family about a year and a half ago. It stole everyone's password who logged in and then whoever it was got on my sister's account and sent out massive mailings for porn stuff. I think they downloaded a trial version of Mcafee that could clean out trojans. After they ran that they all changed their passwords, but my sister ended up having to start a new screen name because of the flame mail and lewd responses she kept getting. If I were you I would run a scan of your computer and see if there is anything on it. If you don't have an antivirus program there are some free ones for download and I know Trend has a web based scan (housecall.antivirus.com). Like I said, I would start from there and start trying to eliminate stuff. Good luck!!

 

[ojai00]

You should also be careful of where you log on to AIM. Most of the time when you first sign on to AIM, the "Save Password" is checked off by default, so the password will remain on the computer even after you sign off. Then a low-life person can come to the computer that you were just using and then sign on and send out rude messages to all your friends because they have nothing better to do. Just a though...