it is impossible to reach a human being, and i am brokenhearted to lose years of correspondence from family and friends. i had nothing in my yahoo e-mail account that would benefit anybody financially or any other way. i have sent scores of letters to yahoo security and gotten only automated responses. is there anything i can do? i have called every number i could find associated with yahoo, and got only one person after hours of being on hold and automatically hung up on several times. very frustrating. this man was supposed to be a supervisor of some kind, and he advised me that it "appeared" that my account had been compromised (duh!) because the original settings had been changed, which accounts for why i can't reset my password. he gave me the security e-mail address for yahoo which was useless! i have had no luck reaching a real person since.
i would love any advice. i never ever gave my password out, so it's the work of a hacker.
what can i do?
thanks everyone
2006-07-01 13:23:39 · 6 answers · asked by Anonymous in Computers & Internet ➔ Security
The only way next to do now is preventive measures because, even if you didn't give out passwords to anyone, you actually can get your passwords stolen from malware phishing softwares that are designed to steal such information. I heard a lot of people with such problems that is why I upgraded my account to Mail Plus account so that I can get legitimate answers from these guys. There are programs called keyloggers that can site quitely on your computer recording your every press on your keyboard and at a certain time pass that to someone.
You can get the following as preventive measures to protecting yoursystem
1) Firewall (Software types) which can tell you anything that comes in and out of your computer
2) Good Antivirus softwares.... (There are free versions... get those.)
3) Anti-Spyware Softwares like Adaware / Spybot / Advanced Spyware Remover / X Cleaner
Also another thing is that if you used your e-mail in public areas like an Internet Cafe make sure you connect to your system via secure connection... most web based e-mails have those options now...
Also even on your own computer always change your password to prevent others from using your computer just to change your password for fun and never ever tell you...
There are hundreds of ways.... but I can summarise this to being really careful....
***GOLDEN ADVICE*** Get the paid version of Yahoo next time around and configure Outlook to pull out your e-mails so you have a local copy of your correspondence in your OUTLOOK Program... That is what I do... if there was anything important in my yahoo e-mail isn't in the inbox because it has already transfered itself to my e-mail software locally stored on my computer... incase anyone hacked my e-mail.. and changes the password.. at least I have the important data stored locally in my computer....
Anyway.. I hope this helps you out.
2006-07-01 13:36:25 · answer #1 · answered by kitakits.com 2 · 9⤊ 0⤋
I'll take your story at face value, and assume that your story is true. There are a few questions you need to ask yourself:
Did you have a weak password? Was it something that could be easily guessed? Was it a common word?
Were you using a laptop at an internet cafe or free wifi hotspot, and did you go to Yahoo?
*If* your account was compromised, it was most likely via one of these methods. Even more likely, if it was compromised it was probably by someone you know, who would be more likely to know your password, and have some reason to want to get into your email.
I'm sympathetic, but you have to be realistic. It's a free service. Did you actually send an email to the yahoo security address with the details of what happened to you clearly stated? I notice you indicated that this was "useless." Useless or not, if that's Yahoo's way of handling these things, then the only advice I can give you is to follow their instructions.
Of course the first thing to try would be this:
http://edit.yahoo.com/config/eval_forgot_pw?new=1&.done=&.src=&partner=&.intl=us
2006-07-01 13:34:14 · answer #2 · answered by Gizmo L 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
I'm 99.99999% sure that it wasn't a hacker. They don't care about your account and they would have had to hack Yahoo! to do it. If they had, Yahoo! would have been much more interested in this. That is assuming that Yahoo! isn't just a bunch of idiots running around like chickens with their heads cut off. There is nothing that you can do though. It is probably someone who stumbled across your password (got on your computer and looked at saved passwords, watched over your shoulder, etc.) and decided to have some fun.
2006-07-01 13:29:12 · answer #3 · answered by davidmyers 1 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Yahoo is the EASIEST email to hack into. I strongly suggest if you start a new account, you use a fake date of birth. Write it down somewhere, and don't tell anyone what it is.
2006-07-01 13:26:39 · answer #4 · answered by Anonymous 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
I'd wipe the computer clean & re-boot using your Start-Up disk!
Hopefully you've saved important info to disk already...If not, guess it's a Learning Experience for you!?
2006-07-01 13:26:03 · answer #5 · answered by AlbertaGuy 5 · 0⤊ 0⤋
change to hotmail. i have yahoo service for the answers only, i have hotmail for everything else, its great, customer service is great, way better than yahoo
2006-07-01 13:26:35 · answer #6 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋