[mileswu]

> In my case the hacker asked to all my contacts with an automatic message for some Liberty Reserve money. Most of them trust me and my account, so they were inclined to accept.

I'm not sure why anyone would give money to a friend via Liberty Reserve, just because a friend requests some via an instant message. The average person has probably never heard of Liberty Reserve either. Before sending any money of any kind, wouldn't one ask the friend what's wrong whereupon it would become obvious it's not them?

Maybe I'm just deeply skeptical and distrusting and the rest of the world is more optimistic.

[takluyver]

I've been nearly taken in by a similar scam done by e-mail: a message from an aunt, saying that her handbag had been stolen while she was in Spain, and she urgently needed some money to sort things out and get home.

It needs a target who's close enough to care, but not so close that they know the details are wrong (as far as I knew, my aunt could have been in Spain). The apparent theft can stop a credulous target from trying to phone the person.

Finally, it only needs to work occasionally to pay off, and the OP mentions having over 1000 Skype contacts.