Problems with Yahoo Email Accounts? Hacking problems?

[junglechef]

One of my Yahoo email accounts was hacked the morning and is sending out different spam links to some of the people in my address book. It has been difficult to open emails and manage my account for a while now. My other accounts including Hotmail have had no problems. Could this be a problem with Yahoo in Thailand? What has others done that have been hacked? I've ben advised to just change my password, any opinions on this or might it be just better to make a new account to be on the safe side?

[MJCM]

Maybe this helps ?

http://www.ymailblog.com/blog/2011/12/yahoo-introduces-stronger-user-authentication-%E2%80%93-second-sign-in-verification/

Edit : // Added Ps

Ps: Don't know if this is available in Thailand yet, anyone ?

Edited June 16, 2013 by MJCM

[LivinginKata]

Moving to Internet/IT Forum

[angiud]

Had the same with my yahoo account, change a password alphanumeric difficult to crack. Now is ok. I suggest to change the password sometimes, also with upper and lower case

[MJCM]

Had the same with my yahoo account, change a password alphanumeric difficult to crack. Now is ok. I suggest to change the password sometimes, also with upper and lower case

+1, and if you have difficulty remembering your passwords, use a program like Keepass

[Morden]

I've had spam from several yahoo accounts of friends over the past couple of years, none connected with Thailand. In the last month I've also had spam from a Googlemail account. In another case, a friend's btinternet account was hacked and the hacker set up a Yahoo account using her name.

Changing passwords isn't enough. The hacker-spammer has his victim's contact list. The offence should be reported to your service provider and a message about the hacking and spamming sent to everyone in the contacts list.

[junglechef]

I've had spam from several yahoo accounts of friends over the past couple of years, none connected with Thailand. In the last month I've also had spam from a Googlemail account. In another case, a friend's btinternet account was hacked and the hacker set up a Yahoo account using her name.

Changing passwords isn't enough. The hacker-spammer has his victim's contact list. The offence should be reported to your service provider and a message about the hacking and spamming sent to everyone in the contacts list.

Thanks, Are saying that changing password, report and send messages to contacts should surfice?

[cardholder]

I've had spam from several yahoo accounts of friends over the past couple of years, none connected with Thailand. In the last month I've also had spam from a Googlemail account. In another case, a friend's btinternet account was hacked and the hacker set up a Yahoo account using her name.

Changing passwords isn't enough. The hacker-spammer has his victim's contact list. The offence should be reported to your service provider and a message about the hacking and spamming sent to everyone in the contacts list.

Thanks, Are saying that changing password, report and send messages to contacts should surfice?

It worked for me.

Once I changed the password the spurious emails stopped.

[Morden]

I've had spam from several yahoo accounts of friends over the past couple of years, none connected with Thailand. In the last month I've also had spam from a Googlemail account. In another case, a friend's btinternet account was hacked and the hacker set up a Yahoo account using her name.

Changing passwords isn't enough. The hacker-spammer has his victim's contact list. The offence should be reported to your service provider and a message about the hacking and spamming sent to everyone in the contacts list.

Thanks, Are saying that changing password, report and send messages to contacts should surfice?

It's just about all you can do as far as I know. You will have taken back 'ownership' of your email address and you will have warned others on the contact list which was stolen.

My friend in England who had her btinternet account hacked was, of course, unaware of what had happened. I received an email address in her name but on a Yahoo account to say that she and her family were stranded in Greece with no money. It's an old scam and you can guess what the next email would have said if I had replied. I knew that she and her family would not be in Greece and emailed her at her correct address with the same advice I gave you. All seems OK now except, of course, some scum bag has her contact list.

[cassde]

I had the same problem with my yahoo account in the UK and changing the password - no problems thereafter. I did notify those effected on my contact list.

[rakman]

Change your passwords, definitely. Also check your "sent" folder to see if the mail originated from your account.

It is easy to spoof a sending address, you can do it with telnet at a cmd prompt if you know how, to an email server that will relay. Many email servers will relay mail. Making a email sending program is trivial.

Check the headers from the emails sent to your friends. Find the source sending server, will help track how you might have been "hacked".

Turn on the two phase authentication. It will alert you to someone trying to log into your account. Nice feature yahoo added.

[mikebell]

My account (yahoo) keeps sending out spam advertising Ohwit Boxing Day sale. Changed password a number of times. Cuts it down but still there. Tried to contact Yahoo - get merely FAQs or 'Change Password advice'.

Interested in finding where it's emanating from. 'Sent' box?

[GooEng]

My yahoo account was hacked a few months back - same hassle, loads of spam sent out from my account. Emailed yahoo about it and they were f**king hopeless - no help at all. Changed the password and the problem ceased.

im not certain, but i have a feeling I must have signed up to subscribe something or register with a site where my email address was entered and I used the same password as my email account password for the password for whatever I'd subscribed or registered to. Silly mistake and will not be repeated.

[Gnasher328]

A lot of friends have had similar problems in recent years, all with Yahoo variants. They finally got me so I contacted Yahoo, who couldn't give a monkeys. I emailed everyone on my mailing list that I was changing to Gmail, stripped all info from the account,changed my name to 'SPAM' and just use it as a pass through to pick up any straglers who did not get the message. Will also use it for signing up to suspect sites.

I do not think they had my pw, I think they can hack Yahoo at source, lots on Google about the problem .

T.

[johnnybgood]

Exactly the same situation described by the OP happened with my one of my Yahoo accounts here in LOS. I changed the password - end of story.

Then, last week another of my Yahoo accounts got hijacked. Again a password change has fixed it.

In both cases, by using my address book, links or exe files were sent to trusting people.

The first time luckily was a weekend, so I could notify my friends at home before any damage was done.

What I did after that episode was to copy my address book onto a small txt doc, it sits on my desktop and a copy 'n' paste does the job.

No need for an address book in any of my accounts I hope this helps.

[craigt3365]

A lot of friends have had similar problems in recent years, all with Yahoo variants. They finally got me so I contacted Yahoo, who couldn't give a monkeys. I emailed everyone on my mailing list that I was changing to Gmail, stripped all info from the account,changed my name to 'SPAM' and just use it as a pass through to pick up any straglers who did not get the message. Will also use it for signing up to suspect sites.

I do not think they had my pw, I think they can hack Yahoo at source, lots on Google about the problem .

T.

It's not just a problem with Yahoo, all internet email providers are at risk, even Gmail:

http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2011/11/hacked/308673/

Once hacked, they've already got your contact list. So nothing you can do. But you can keep them out by changing your password, especially to something complex. I know it's hard to do, but it's a must. Passwords need to be changed every 3 months or so, and don't use the same password across multiple accounts. I've got about 7 different passwords. Sucks, but that's what's needed nowadays.

Also, make sure you've got a good antivirus program. Do a scan and make sure all's well. I use 2 different programs to scan. Some risks aren't picked up by one, but are by the other.

[1FinickyOne]

They got me yesterday - it even sent spam links to people not in my contacts - but from my inbox. I changed my password immediately and it seems ok now but still pondering options. Funny in that many people did click on the link which was something abt strawberries, so far no reports of anything harmful?????? Why do people do this? Is it an advertiser getting hits for their clients and they get paid by the hit?

[Anon999]

It has been a common occurrence for a while and changing the password to a more secure one will fix the problem.

[Anon999]

They got me yesterday - it even sent spam links to people not in my contacts - but from my inbox. I changed my password immediately and it seems ok now but still pondering options. Funny in that many people did click on the link which was something abt strawberries, so far no reports of anything harmful?????? Why do people do this? Is it an advertiser getting hits for their clients and they get paid by the hit?

Often the perpetrators send a scam email to everyone on your lists. Recently that you are in a foreign country and have been robbed and not have a passport etc,. and ask for money to buy an airline ticket/pay hotel etc., etc. I know a few people that it has happened to.

[Anon999]

A lot of friends have had similar problems in recent years, all with Yahoo variants. They finally got me so I contacted Yahoo, who couldn't give a monkeys. I emailed everyone on my mailing list that I was changing to Gmail, stripped all info from the account,changed my name to 'SPAM' and just use it as a pass through to pick up any straglers who did not get the message. Will also use it for signing up to suspect sites.

I do not think they had my pw, I think they can hack Yahoo at source, lots on Google about the problem .

T.

It's not just a problem with Yahoo, all internet email providers are at risk, even Gmail:

http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2011/11/hacked/308673/

Once hacked, they've already got your contact list. So nothing you can do. But you can keep them out by changing your password, especially to something complex. I know it's hard to do, but it's a must. Passwords need to be changed every 3 months or so, and don't use the same password across multiple accounts. I've got about 7 different passwords. Sucks, but that's what's needed nowadays.

Also, make sure you've got a good antivirus program. Do a scan and make sure all's well. I use 2 different programs to scan. Some risks aren't picked up by one, but are by the other.

Yes good anti-virus software is essential. I've used Avast for some time with no problems.

Edited June 18, 2013 by Anon999

[craigt3365]

What got me was an email from my brother with a subject line like this:

Hey man, check this out. Pretty cool.

There was a regular looking link to some well known website. But it was a fake and got me. Sent out the same email to all my contacts. Luckily, most knew it was a bad email and not from me. But these guys are sneaky!

[vincentc]

My yahoo account was hacked a few months back - same hassle, loads of spam sent out from my account. Emailed yahoo about it and they were f**king hopeless - no help at all. Changed the password and the problem ceased.

im not certain, but i have a feeling I must have signed up to subscribe something or register with a site where my email address was entered and I used the same password as my email account password for the password for whatever I'd subscribed or registered to. Silly mistake and will not be repeated.

Exactly the same happened to me last year. Spam being send from my account, Yahoo helpdesk - as usual - totally hopeless on anything except answering to questions you did not ask.

I also suspect the 'hack' was easy and must have come from a website i registered with the concerned Email address and same password.

Changing the password solved the problems. the 'hacker' had been kind enough not to change my password and that seems to be the case in most similar cases reported here and elsewhere.

[LUSHGOAT]

I had the same problem and not in Thailand I might add, I contacted yahoo they told me to change the password but almost immediately I received more spam. I contacted them again and suggested this problem was from inside Yahoo and low and behold it stopped.

[glegolo]

Had the same with my yahoo account, change a password alphanumeric difficult to crack. Now is ok. I suggest to change the password sometimes, also with upper and lower case

Yes these virus is quite common. It always starts with yourself receiving a mail from a "friend" a guy in your addressbook. The mail trying to be personal in the square "subject" mentioning maybe a familiar name or something, just enough for you to feel comfortable and click on the link enclosed in the mail.

And by you clicking the link, you are done, and virus is immediately attacking your addressbook and sending out hundreds of mail each and everyday from your email..... And it is being spread that way.

Above quoted post is exactly what you always should do.... It doesn´t matter what kind of password you change to....just change it if just by one letter or one number and the virus is being stopped for good.

Glegolo

[pizzachang]

I've had an ongoing problem with Yahoo - signing in! Hardly ever can I sign in on 1 click after correctly entering my username & password. Usually get the "invalid" message and just click again and then get signed in. Hard to understand why this can't be fixed, although it is only an irritation. It does show a certain sloppiness in website management that may contribute to your getting hacked.

[craigt3365]

I've had an ongoing problem with Yahoo - signing in! Hardly ever can I sign in on 1 click after correctly entering my username & password. Usually get the "invalid" message and just click again and then get signed in. Hard to understand why this can't be fixed, although it is only an irritation. It does show a certain sloppiness in website management that may contribute to your getting hacked.

Hmmm...I've never had this problem, unless my security settings weren't set properly. I'm not technical, but I think it had something to do with allowing cookies to be stored.

I use Yahoo and Gmail with 2 different browsers. Both get signed in automatically when I open any of my browsers.

[korkenzieher]

We have a problem with my dads account - since he died last August, we have started getting email spamming from him. Quite clever, I suppose on one level - but of course the problem is that we don't know how to access the account to change the password, or delete it!

[Quickmill]

I had a similar issue last year, than i got an email by yahoo, the original, where they informed me that my account had been open from Nigeria, I immediately changed password, and since than i do every 6 months.

[mrfill]

Most of the time this is the fault of the account holder who uses the simplest possible password and never changes it.

Passwords should be at least 8 characters long, be a mix of letters and numbers/symbols and, most importantly, should not be in a dictionary. Any word based password can be cracked in seconds using a dictionary scanner. Passwords should be changed at least once a month.

For websites you access occasionally that insist on an email address, use a separate yahoo/outlook account with no contacts held.

Beware of any email from someone you don't know and never open attachments from unknown senders. Check any link on emails before clicking - any decent email client will reveal the address of the link by hovering the mouse over the link. If you do happen to respond, your email address will then be known to be active and is worth money to harvesters for marketing purposes. In the worst case, software can be dumped onto your machine which can grab passwords, bank details etc or allow your machine to become part of a botnet.

Remember - if you use WIndows the default setup has no password for the most powerful user (Admin) so ensure you give it a password. You wouldn't leave your house without securing it but people leave their machines with virtually no security, courtesy of Microsoft's sloppy ideas.

In my experience, Yahoo and Outlook (aka Hotmail) have poor spam filtering. I have far less junk mail with Gmail and it doesnt charge for POP access.

Your data is valuable. Look after it.

[Diazo]

I had the same problem. What a headache. I simply deleted the Yahoo account. Problem stopped. That did create a few problems w/ some accounts I had w/ other IP's e.g.

my Apple verification e-mail address was the Yahoo account. But these were resolved quite easily