BS: Tech: aol mail/chat question

Subject: BS: Tech: aol mail/chat question
From: Janie
Date: 02 Sep 14 - 10:37 PM

Weird to me. My e-mail is aol. For years. I just got a request on my aol e-mail, a request from somebody saying they want to chat with me. That has never happened before and was not from an e-mail addy or screen name I recognized.

I declined, but am wondering how that happened. I don't utilize aol im, btw.

Subject: RE: BS: Tech: aol mail/chat question
From: Janie
Date: 02 Sep 14 - 10:41 PM

Hope that is descriptive enough. I may not be using the current terminology. don't have an AOL buddy list, and have never had a pop-up appear on my aol e-mail account before requesting communication - no pop-ups at all to my e-mail window before now. Have I been hacked, am I being invited to be hacked, or are there simply new features I did not know about? Feeling paranoid.

Subject: RE: BS: Tech: aol mail/chat question
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 02 Sep 14 - 11:13 PM

I used to have their instant messenger installed, but haven't used it in probably five years. Maybe it was a spoofed email?

SRS

Subject: RE: BS: Tech: aol mail/chat question
From: Janie
Date: 02 Sep 14 - 11:44 PM

I have never installed instant messenger. This was not a spoofed e-mail, it was a pop-up that 'bonged' an alert similar but a different tone to the one I get when a new e-mail message is delivered. When I checked my in-box, there was the pop-up in the lower right corner, saying so-and-so was requesting to chat with me. Sort of like what facebook does now with pm's but not like what happens when I am at my Mom's and on her aol log-in - where my Dad's im has never been uninstalled. But I haven't been on her computer or using her log-in for awhile, so it may look different now for im than it used to.

Regardless, it has never happened before on my aol account.

I assume it is phishing of some sort, but wondering if the account has been at least partially hacked (if that is possible) that such a pop-up to messaging that I haven't installed can occur.

Subject: RE: BS: Tech: aol mail/chat question
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 03 Sep 14 - 02:08 PM

I occasionally get a message from someone soliciting help.

Fer heaven's sake, all Email is easily hacked. Nearly all of it is done for retailers, so just a nuisance. Also there is nothing to stop someone who handles your order or signed petition or whatever from contacting you on a personal basis.

If you worry overmuch about such, go back to paper, envelope, pen and ink and postage stamp, and send by registered mail.

Subject: RE: BS: Tech: aol mail/chat question
From: Bill D
Date: 03 Sep 14 - 08:28 PM

I 'think' that one's box is always open to requests like that, even if you never intentionally use it. This could be just some mistaken attempt to contact someone else with a vaguely similar address.

Subject: RE: BS: Tech: aol mail/chat question
From: robomatic
Date: 03 Sep 14 - 08:35 PM

If it is someone you know or someone who introduces him/herself and states a reason for getting in touch, you might think about following up. If it's a stranger then ignore it and change your password.

Subject: RE: BS: Tech: aol mail/chat question
From: Janie
Date: 03 Sep 14 - 09:37 PM

OK and thanks to all. I have had the same e-mail account for a number of years, and have never had this happen. Weirded me out, perhaps unnecessarily.