I use Windows Live Messenger to chat with my friends and relative. I have been using this for many years, from the msn messenger days to the renamed Live Messenger.

Recently, I received messages from my friend asking to click on links. It was quite suspicious. We never start any conversations by sending a link and we dont send when we are offline. If we see each other online, we start out with a customory hello!

I ignored it and signed off. This morning when I signed on, there was another message, again asking to click a link. So now it is confirmed a spam.

Possible reason:

1. My friends PC was infected with virus which made use of his Live Messenger

2. My friends friend got infected and received a link, he clicked on it and got infected in return.

If I had clicked on it, I would have been infected and spend time cleaning. High possibilty my Symenatec would be able to pick it up and quarentine or delete.

My suggestions:

1. If it seems suspicious, ignore them. You might want to check with your friend if it is genuine.

2. Keep your Anti-Virus software updated and scan regularly.

3. Install a Anti-Spyware application and ensure it is updated with the latest definitions. Scan regulary too.
- You might want to use Lavasoft Adaware or Spybot Search & Destroy. Both  are free.

More of this spyware issues in my next article.

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