Posted by MikeC/TX on 2/6/13 8:13pm
Msg #454381

To all those complaining that your Yahoo account was hacked

It's not them - it's you. Let's face it - you're not important enough for someone to want to hack into your email....

If you can still access your email account, your account was not hacked. If the bad stuff keeps happening after you change your password, your account was not hacked.

What has probably happened was that you clicked on a link in an email message from someone you know, or visited a web page that dropped a program on you without your knowledge while you had your Yahoo account open in another window. Either way, YOU are the one who compromised your email system, even if you weren't aware at the time. This is what we call a self-inflicted wound...

First step - run Malwarebytes to determine whether there is something running on your computer that you don't know about.

Second step - STOP FOLLOWING LINKS you get in an email, even if it appears to be from someone you know. Unless you were expecting to get that link, best practice is to either ignore it or contact the person who sent it to verify that it is real.

Your other option is to ignore all of this and continue to complain about your Yahoo account being hacked... Doesn't fix the problem, but it may make you feel better...

PS - I have had a Yahoo account for about 12 years, and have never had it "hacked"

Reply by MW/VA on 2/6/13 8:31pm
Msg #454385

Good advice, Mike, but not all true. y n/m

Reply by MW/VA on 2/6/13 8:41pm
Msg #454390

not finished...... we get links for docs so we have to open

those. As far as I understand it they are hacking email accts., pirating contact lists & sending illicit adv. links to those addresses. I've run c-cleaner, Malware bytes' etc. My tech guy checked everything & ran another program too. I've heard somewhere there's a worm that attaches to the back of the email acct. This is a recent problem--not usual virus threats. There are a couple of notaries that were in my contact list that I've gotten those emails from for going on 6 mos. Even my tech guy doesn't know how/why this is happening.

Reply by MikeC/TX on 2/7/13 6:43pm
Msg #454633

Re: not finished...... we get links for docs so we have to open

Obviously, you have to open links for docs - you're expecting those.

The point I was trying to make is that there's not some guy out there, living in his parent's basement and subsisting on Cheetos and Mountain Dew, trying to hack into email accounts of people he doesn't know. There's no benefit to that for him, because it would take too long. What is more likely is that people are exploiting known holes in web browsers and mail programs, and it's all automated.

When I hear someone say that their email account has been "hacked" multiple times in the past few weeks or months even though they changed their password, I know it's because of something THEY are doing wrong - ignoring the basic rules for computer security. You DO NOT click on links that someone sends you unless you can confirm that they actually sent it to you.

"There are a couple of notaries that were in my contact list that I've gotten those emails from for going on 6 mos. Even my tech guy doesn't know how/why this is happening."

I don't know how good your tech guy is, but did anyone bother to check the systems of the notaries that keep sending you these emails? Sometimes you can't catch this stuff unless you boot the system in Safe Mode.

Reply by sueharke on 2/6/13 11:10pm
Msg #454441

Try using a different computer and see if you have the same problem (public library or school library). If no, then your computer may be infected as in the first post and it may take a higher level professional virus removal program to clean your computer.

Safe computing is a learned skill. When people send me anything with just a link, I delete it! I don't care who it is or if I know the person. I am paranoid when it comes to computing.