The e-mail that comes from ICQ support that asks users for their UIN and passwords is in “the wild” again (here’s a screen capture of the e-mail). The Register picked up on the story a few weeks back but, shed no real light on it. Also, they speculate what could be behind the hack but, offer nothing very definitive.
Some may remember late last year, someone was able to nab my UIN. Not in this manner. Rather, they merely were able to guess my embarrassingly easy password. After numerous requests, I got no help from ICQ support but, I was able to retrieve my UIN myself, in my own way. Later that week, I got this e-mail asking me for my UIN and password too. I forwarded the message to ICQ support which actually prompted a reply. They thanked me for the e-mail and header but, sternly warned me that in the user agreement, ICQ agents will never ask for user passwords… duh.
My belief is that there are people who are willing to hack UIN’s that are in the 9,999,999 range and below in which to sell at eBay. For example, here’s one (5555071) for bid for $9.00. Here another one (164834) that’s going for $30.00. Now mind you there isn’t many right now on eBay but, wouldn’t it make sense to lay low for a couple of months? Anyway, it makes perfect sense to me that if they browsed ICQ’s user directories, they would get the e-mail addresses of the UIN in question. Takes some legwork but, if you can peddle the UIN for a few bucks, it’s quite a nice little hack.