Bizarre icons have just appeared - yellow diamonds

Hello all
Just joined forum and have to report strange goings-on....
Am running OS10.4 on an iMac.
Suddenly all my MS word docs (97-04 version) have transformed into folders with a yellow diamond icon on them. Inside the icon is a figure of a man walking. Above the folder is a small white rectangle with .bin written in it. It all looks rather suspect. They all function fine as word docs, but it is ugly and disconcerting.
Any ideas?

Thanks

Jonathan

a man walking? Without a screen shot, I'm going to guess they've been made into public folders?