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AVoiceOfReason · 07-30-2005, 03:57 PM

I recently lost (and then recovered) my Yahoo ID. So that others may learn from my tale of woe, here is the saga:

One night as I was getting ready to go to bed, I got an IM from someone on my pager. Or at least I THOUGHT it was from someone that was there. The name was the same, but it turned out the ID had been hijacked. It seems the perp set up a webpage on Geocities and then tricked people into logging onto it. He got my friend, and then started chatting me up as if he knew me. I didn't quite understand why the guy I knew was collecting "rares" (Yahoo IDs with a capital letter in them) but I'd heard of others doing it, so I didn't think too much about going to the site to take a look. I didn't remember if I had logged off Yahoo at some point, and when it asked me to log on, I absentmindedly did it. Next thing I knew, I couldn't use that ID anymore. The criminal on the other end had changed my password immediately, and I was out of an account I'd had for almost 8 years.

So I immediately emailed Yahoo, and within an hour, that account had been suspended. Good on that part, but bad because I then had to prove it was me. They asked things I didn't know, like what was my alternate email address when I signed on (it could have been one of three or four) and what my zip code was on the account (I narrowed it to five--two for the offices I had and three for residences). I had to tell them something about the account--who was in the address book on the mailbox, what Yahoo groups I was a member of, etc. After a week, I got my old ID back, and as far as I can tell, the jerk got no imformation of value, due in no smalll part to Yahoo's quick actions.

Had I read the Yahoo security page BEFORE all this, I would have known about this scam and not fell victim to it. I know the twerp got my ID from my friend, who in turn became a target because of yet another victim. Still, in the future, I'll ask some security questions of my own when it is someone that doesn't know to call me by my first name when they see the ID.

07-30-2005, 03:57 PM	#13 (permalink)
AVoiceOfReason Psycho Location: Greenwood, Arkansas	I recently lost (and then recovered) my Yahoo ID. So that others may learn from my tale of woe, here is the saga: One night as I was getting ready to go to bed, I got an IM from someone on my pager. Or at least I THOUGHT it was from someone that was there. The name was the same, but it turned out the ID had been hijacked. It seems the perp set up a webpage on Geocities and then tricked people into logging onto it. He got my friend, and then started chatting me up as if he knew me. I didn't quite understand why the guy I knew was collecting "rares" (Yahoo IDs with a capital letter in them) but I'd heard of others doing it, so I didn't think too much about going to the site to take a look. I didn't remember if I had logged off Yahoo at some point, and when it asked me to log on, I absentmindedly did it. Next thing I knew, I couldn't use that ID anymore. The criminal on the other end had changed my password immediately, and I was out of an account I'd had for almost 8 years. So I immediately emailed Yahoo, and within an hour, that account had been suspended. Good on that part, but bad because I then had to prove it was me. They asked things I didn't know, like what was my alternate email address when I signed on (it could have been one of three or four) and what my zip code was on the account (I narrowed it to five--two for the offices I had and three for residences). I had to tell them something about the account--who was in the address book on the mailbox, what Yahoo groups I was a member of, etc. After a week, I got my old ID back, and as far as I can tell, the jerk got no imformation of value, due in no smalll part to Yahoo's quick actions. Had I read the Yahoo security page BEFORE all this, I would have known about this scam and not fell victim to it. I know the twerp got my ID from my friend, who in turn became a target because of yet another victim. Still, in the future, I'll ask some security questions of my own when it is someone that doesn't know to call me by my first name when they see the ID. __________________ AVOR A Voice Of Reason, not necessarily the ONLY one.