Home › Forums › Archives › Instant Messaging › Other Instant Messengers › ICQ › Old ICQ # wont work/ICQ gives out old #?
- This topic has 6 replies, 6 voices, and was last updated 14 years, 6 months ago by Nederfox.
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July 29, 2003 at 12:40 am #12696KarmicomaMember
okay, but problem takes a bit of explaining. please bear with me
recently i just tried to go onto my icq that i’ve had on my computer for a while but haven’t been touched for about half a year. Last time i tried to log on, it worked fine. but a couple of days ago when i tried to log on again, it prompted me for my password which is kinda weird because that never happens. anyway. i typed it in, but it was somehow wrong, so i tried to have my password emailed to me. I was sent an email telling me my password, but it was in codes lucky for me, at the bottom of my email, there was a link that said someting along the lines of “if the password above appears in characters, please follow this link to be reissued a password”. I went to the link (several times) but they were unable to reissue me a password. so i tried typing different emails wondering if I typed the wrong one in the first place. those didn’t even go through. so I tried searching for myself (i remembered the number) on the icq white pages. Nothing came up when i typed my email addy (which is weird because it went through when i tried to retrieve my password). AND! here’s the kicker, when i searched with my ICQ number in the icq white pages, i had found out that another person had my number! in case this helps anyone who would want to tackle this problem, this is my icq number: 5583661. BTW, i’m not a 19 year old male from Russia. but the person with that number now (according to the white pages) IS!
CONFUSED! very much.
July 29, 2003 at 1:24 am #92645quietbritishjimMemberThere have been cases where people have had their ICQ numbers stolen, though it’s normally the 6 digit ones. You can try contacting ICQ about the matter, but to be honest I doubt you’re likely to get much done.
If I were you though the thing I’d do would be get another ICQ number and ask this guy wtf he’s doing stealing your number! He’ll block you in half a second but it’s got to be done…
Edit: Oh, I’ve just noticed the six months gap thing *must read posts more carefully*. I guess your ICQ account was deactivated because of inactivity, it’s normal policy. It’s a bit funny they gave your number out to someone else, it’s not like numbers are in limited supply [:P] but still not that strange.
July 29, 2003 at 3:49 pm #92643rustedtightMemberQuote:quote:Edit: Oh, I’ve just noticed the six months gap thing *must read posts more carefully*. I guess your ICQ account was deactivated because of inactivity, it’s normal policy.I question this reply, when did this become policy at ICQ?. I just re-activated several old ID’s ( more than 12 months old) and they are still unique to me.
I think there is another answer to this query.July 29, 2003 at 9:10 pm #92646Mr.Curlynose1MemberWell if they were e-mailing the password to HIS e-mail address I think his account was stolen [:-].
July 29, 2003 at 11:28 pm #92644quietbritishjimMemberQuote:quote:Originally posted by rustedtightQuote:quote:Edit: Oh, I’ve just noticed the six months gap thing *must read posts more carefully*. I guess your ICQ account was deactivated because of inactivity, it’s normal policy.I question this reply, when did this become policy at ICQ?. I just re-activated several old ID’s ( more than 12 months old) and they are still unique to me.
I think there is another answer to this query.Well then you know better than I do 🙂 In that case someone probably has stolen the number, so the first part of my post (before the “edit:”) stands.
August 8, 2003 at 5:51 pm #92647AnonymousParticipantHow people are stealing #’s
What they are doing, is checking the primary email of the ICQ #. They see if its a place such as Hotmail, or any other free service. Then They go and try to register it. If they can. They then goto the ICQ password retrievel site, and have the password sent to it. The problem is, places like Hotmail expire after 30 days of non-use leaving those emails open. If you have this as your primary, I suggest you change it to an email address from an ISP to protect it. Also, make it non viewable. If you plan on using a free email address, just make sure that it is one that doesnt expire, or that you log in every 10-15 days just to keep it active.
As usual, hope this offers some solutions 🙂
Jeremy
September 4, 2003 at 9:25 pm #92648NederfoxMemberYep,
Additionally, common pw stealing methods are:
– brute force with dictionaries
– checking pass=something in public info fields
– social engineering 😀So now, you know how to protect your icq#…
Nederfox -
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