Been getting a bunch of random adds from "people" the last few weeks. Anyone else getting them too? I'm worried that it may be due to my PC being infected, though I've run a scan already. The emails usually go like KaylaWatierreski8293@hotmail.com

Dime to a dollar it isn't spyware or anything. It is just people seeing your nick online and spamming you.
Hell, get an ICQ account. You will get contact requests from Russians all day long.

We use Skype at work, and I frequently get top financial advise completely at random, as well as spousal invitations from girls with names like "Marina", "Lusha", "Sasha", "Dasvidanja", and so on.
In other words, switch to Skype if you want financial success and a happy marriage.

I had one. I even remember my UIN, but I've never bothered to reinstall it. I wonder how many new adds I'm going to get when I do.

Or Hotmail if one's spouse/girlfriend complains about one's love-making abilities at night?
My brother hasn't been getting any of these though. I swear I didn't give out my email to porn sites...at least, not since 10 years ago...

Yeah it's been happening to me and a few people I know. It's a spam problem or whatever. I emailed them about it, here's the response:
"Thank you for writing to Windows Live Customer Support. This is Elaine and I understand how inconvenient such issues can be.
Sean, our product team was able to gather enough data to proceed with the investigation regarding this issue. When a resolution is found, Windows Live Messenger will be updated. In these cases, no additional action is required from you. Although we do not have the exact date for the resolution, we are diligently working to have it fixed as soon as possible. Please continue using your Windows Live Messenger account while we investigate the cause of this issue."
For now best thing to do is block/report them.

Yeah, me too. Little nuisance....

Oh, if only this was an infection; as it is there's no way around it besides changing addresses or networks (I haven't seen this with Google Talk yet).

Do you guys think there's a way to retrieve a REALLY old ICQ UIN? I used to enjoy it, but haven't used ICQ for the past 8 years.

I think so, as long as your email's still active.

Google Talk? People use that?

I'd bet it's the most popular Jabber service around, probably beating all the others together.