So this morning I was greeted by a message from AOL’s system when I booted up Gaim:

AIM added a new AIM Bots group to your Buddy List. Send IMs to moviefone and shoppingbuddy for great holiday flicks and gift ideas. (To remove ‘em, just right-click and delete! Learn More)

I messaged shoppingbuddy and got a menu in super-tiny text (and grey!) text. I could barely make out the words but tapped out a few numbers to navigate a bit. I hit the URL looking for a feedback link so I could complain but there weren’t any to be found. This is how it starts, folks. The first time they augment your buddy list, next they’re installing rootkits on your machine for you.

( Shopping Buddy Conversation )

Update: When you remove the AIM Bots group you get messaged again with URLs to learn more about the AIM Bots you so callously excluded from your messenger (don’t you feel bad, now?).

( Please Come Back, We Didn’t Mean It )