Wow, I hope that is not true. Maybe I've been lucky. I've been using it for quite a while, along with some friends and associates, and no one I know has yet had a problem, but that doesn't necessarily mean anything. Thanks for the info, and I look forward to hearing what you find out. less

It's sort of true. MSN is a common target and there are a lot of 'bots' which add you and can give you viruses. Frequently, these infections are unknown to the perosn who has them. The one I am most familiar with will post messages to your friends but you won't see them AND if your friends try to copy and paste it back, they won't be able to see it either. Definitely tricky. However, it's easily solved by not adding anyone you don't know and having up to date virus protection.

Anyway, folks on Yahoo can add MSN messenger addresses, too, so this would be doubly useful IMO. less

"While performing their duties, Messenger and WLM consume a fair amount of resources, which can cause your computer to operate slowly. Perhaps even worse, Messenger and WLM can be security risks, allowing unwanted advertisements to reach the computer through ports opened by the applications. Internet advertisers can use the ports used by Messenger service to send pop-up advertisements to connected computers. The pop-ups open in a window entitled Messenger Service. This security breach gives malicious software an opening into the computer by which it can begin attacking the OS."

first search result under "windows messenger hazard"
I can't get the damn thing off my computer anyway... and I don't use it. less