SPAMMERS use BBS's to hack ICQ

[alexh]

Hackers have started to use BBS's to help a whole new generation of spamming.

They use them as a source of ICQ numbers and ideas for hacking accounts.

I recently had my 10+yo ICQ account hacked (probably for good).

I recommend that if you have an ICQ account, and have displayed its number on BBS's that you make sure that your email address and password hint are upto date and that your password is not easily guessed (No dictionary words, no dictionary words with letters for numbers substitution).

Dont use the same password for BBS's as your email or IM.

Otherwise you may find yourself like me.... without your ICQ account

(Damn I wish ICQ had sent a confirmation email before allowing a password or email change!)

Sorry to hear about your hackage there. But thanks for warning the rest of us. Could help us from having the same fate.

I like using different "levels" of password. I have like 3 to 4 different passes. Like the most important being for banks, the secondary ones for e-mail and forums. With IM or IRC being a completely different password(s).

Dang it, and I guess the ICQ peeps no longer help you?

[eLowar]

Originally Posted by alexh

Hackers have started to use BBS's to help a whole new generation of spamming.

They use them as a source of ICQ numbers and ideas for hacking accounts.

I recently had my 10+yo ICQ account hacked (probably for good).

Do you know that for a fact? If your account is that old, it's probably a low number. Those are under constant attack anyways, no matter how people get a hold of them, chances are they just randomly try them all.

That is not to say I disagree, good passwords are always a good idea. It's just that old ICQ accounts are at much higher risk than ones with longer numbers (as they are less interesting to have, unless they're special numbers).

[alexh]

Originally Posted by eLowar

Do you know that for a fact?

No. But you can no longer log in with the password and ICQ refuses to issue a replacement password to the email address that was the primary address.

If it was hacked they havent changed the profile page (it's still me!) and non of my friends have seen my ICQ # online since it happened on 10th October.

Originally Posted by eLowar

If your account is that old, it's probably a low number. Those are under constant attack anyways

WTF for?

Originally Posted by eLowar

It's just that old ICQ accounts are at much higher risk than ones with longer numbers (as they are less interesting to have, unless they're special numbers).

It was an 8-digit number so it cannot be that interesting?

[eLowar]

Originally Posted by alexh

WTF for?

Well they're rare and new numbers are long. And they're rare. Like people would really need a better reason.

Originally Posted by alexh

It was an 8-digit number so it cannot be that interesting?

Okay, true, people are mostly after 6-digit numbers.

[alexh]

Because the hackers havent changed my profile or logged in as me, either they hacked it and stock piled it, or there is a chance that the ICQ database just got corrupted... but if that is true it doesnt look like it's coming back.

My primary email was a hotmail account... I wonder if ICQ no longer allows hotmail accounts and that is complicating things?

More likely to have been hacked. Shame

[P-J]

People still use ICQ?

[DrF]

Originally Posted by eLowar

Well they're rare and new numbers are long. And they're rare. Like people would really need a better reason.
Okay, true, people are mostly after 6-digit numbers.

I remember reading about that while ago, its just a number people
What do they expect to gain with a low number?

As far as I can remember from the article I read it had something to do with respect amongst the ICQ users, with those of generally lower number being some kind of respected figure than those with a higher number or some other utter crap reasoning.

[kriz]

Yes, people still use Icq.. Alot of people in germany seems to like it.