Why does chat sign me in as a friend on random occasions?

Every so often I’ll get a message stating ‘Contact Online’ and when I look in my contacts list it’s me with my avatar. Is this normal? If so why does it happen?

Yes, this is the chat functionality doing what it does.  If you don’t want to use chat and don’t like the notifications, go to menu/tools/accounts and under the general tab, uncheck “XMPP”.  You will need to do this for each account.

Thanks, I thought someone else might’ve been hacking in under my credentials.