Instant Messenger Safety

Hi..remember reading many articles about the dangers of using instant messenger so it is disable on my machine. I use ebay alot and they have an instant messenger service which would notify me if an item I'm bidding on has gone too low - have firewall and antivirus installed but is that enough to prohibit problems - or am I wrong about the danger. Thanks for any information....Michelle

 

I'd sooner trust the 'biggie' IMs out there before I trust eBay version of it.

IM security boils down to this:

• Have up to date av\as
• Don't ever blindly click on links, unless you can verify they're safe by sender
• Have the privacy settings set to 'allow only users on my buddy list to contact me', or similar setting