AIM gives out email address?

[sonofslim]

my brother was visiting yesterday and he needed to get in touch with a friend via AIM, so i set him up with iChat on my computer. i've never used it before, so he just entered his AIM account info and was online.

but now i've started getting spam addressed to his name, at my email account -- what gives? did iChat somehow associate his account with my email address and pass that on to AIM, where it was harvested somehow?

[ingenious]

my brother was visiting yesterday and he needed to get in touch with a friend via AIM, so i set him up with iChat on my computer. i've never used it before, so he just entered his AIM account info and was online.

but now i've started getting spam addressed to his name, at my email account -- what gives? did iChat somehow associate his account with my email address and pass that on to AIM, where it was harvested somehow?


I've never heard of ichat doing this, but AOL does sell personal info.

[sonofslim]

sorry, i miss-spoke -- it's not spam, it's virus stuff. and even if AOL does sell personal info, how did my email get associated with my brother's AOL account, and how did some virus pick it up?

[Sparky's]

I would assume IP linking somehow. Gotta watch those spider webs!!

[Freakk123]

That sucks, man. Stuff like that has never happened to me, and I've had tons of people on my iChat! You're just unlikely.