Why are users automatically being added to my AIM buddy list?

February 23, 2007 9:31 AM

Why are users automatically being added to my AIM buddy list?

I have found "buddies" on my AIM buddy list that I do not know. I always wondered how they got there. Recently, a random person started chatting with me. I refreshed my buddy list (logged off and logged back on) and noticed they were now on my buddy list.

Therefore it seems that anyone I talk to automatically becomes my buddy? How do I change this setting?

I am using iChat with an AIM account.

posted by marc10 to Computers & Internet (11 answers total)

Try turning off the Recent Buddies display in the groups popup menu when you click just under your name and icon.
posted by purephase at 10:03 AM on February 23, 2007

Response by poster: I don't use the groups feature.
posted by marc10 at 10:11 AM on February 23, 2007

I don't know but I've had a similar thing happen where someone totally unknown to me showed up on my recent buddies list and after conversing with that person, I figured out that it was someone I had sent an email to via Hotmail in response to a personal ad. I could never figure out how the connection was made to my AIM account but somehow it was made. I was actually a little weirded out by the whole thing since at the time I was doing a lot of online dating stuff and sort of wanted to stay at a distance for the initial emails, only to have my AIM identity somehow reveled? I'm not discounting that somehow I disclosed it but I really don't think that I knowingly did that. It seems rather implausible that my AIM identity could be disclosed via a Hotmail email but that was the only thing I could think of as being the explanation.
posted by otherwordlyglow at 11:40 AM on February 23, 2007

Since you're using iChat, my guess is that the person gets added to your Address Book, along with their AIM ID. I've noticed this happen to me, and if you look, they're probably in your address book, which for me had also created contacts for all of my "real" AIM buddies. Somehow, they share information.

They may or may not be on your actual AIM buddy list, as iChat might query independently, and I haven't used AIM on anything but my home computers for several years to know any different. I'm no programmer, so I'm not too sure how it works, but I never had it happen in Windows.
posted by troubadour at 11:51 AM on February 23, 2007

Response by poster: i don't think it has anything to do with hotmail....we are not the only ones.
posted by marc10 at 11:55 AM on February 23, 2007

Response by poster: I don't see them in my Mac address book, just in my AIM buddy list.

This is certainly a mac-only/ichat problem.

But they are added to my AIM buddy list which is platform independent.
posted by marc10 at 11:59 AM on February 23, 2007

Is it possible you're seeing other users on your network via Bonjour?
posted by Gable Oak at 1:40 PM on February 23, 2007

Response by poster: nope, i have Bonjour turned off.
posted by marc10 at 1:56 PM on February 23, 2007

and for what it's worth, I don't use iChat (though I sometimes use Trillian) and I'm on a PC.
posted by otherwordlyglow at 2:13 PM on February 23, 2007

The AIM network does have a feature to search for Screen names by email address, for those of you wondering how others get your SN.
posted by comwiz at 4:01 PM on February 23, 2007

Response by poster: For anyone following this topic, apparently deleting the group "Recent Buddies" within iChat will prevent users from automatically being added to your buddy list.
posted by marc10 at 2:58 PM on March 8, 2007