Weird files in the User/Library/Preferences folder

Yesterday I noticed that my Preferences folder contains some very weird files. Actually, they're empty folders. I'd like to know if they are supposed to be there. If not, how did they get there and what should I do with them?
All in all there are about 20 folders and they are all empty.
Here are a few examples of the names of the folders:
˝Äê}]Løˇ€††{·|ê}_|è¿úL
0 0ê)i®øˇ€††'Ò|ê)kÿè¿úLø
Õvpê}]Løˇ€††{·|ê}_|è¿úL
Ωyê}]Løˇ€††{·|ê}_|è¿úL
Thanks for looking!
MacBook Pro   Mac OS X (10.4.6)   2 GHz

Some versions of Photoshop have been known to create such things. Don't remember under what conditions, I think I saw someone say their strange folders appeared when using Photoshop with a either an Epson scanner or printer. At any rate you can toss them without doing any harm.
Francine
Francine
Schwieder

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