This afternoon I went on my name. I recently updated to 5.5 and linked my screennames. A couple minutes after I sign on I get IMed by my own screennames (it was a page that said Osama got captured but it asked you to download something). I quickly changed my password, closed out of AIM, uninstalled, and reinstalled. That just changed the problem. Now people from one of my Buddy List is being IMed by another of my screennames.
This is whats happening:
Screenname A is IMing a buddy in Screenname B’s Buddy List. Screennames A and B don’t have any of the same buddies in the list.
Have I been hacked into? Is this some kind of new spyware, malware, virus?
It’s actually some shitty advertising thing. Not a virus or anything like that, just a bunch of idiots who think invasive software is a good way to advertise. You can just uninstall the crap from your “Add/Remove Software” thing under control panel. Not sure what it’s called though…
It is spyware that spreads like a virus. It has nothing to do with the version of AOL.
You need to do a virus scan.
Note, too, that AIM 5.5 comes with spyware built into it: Wildtangent is part of the package. It can be removed via Add/Remove programs, and I’d suggest you do so.