Yahoo! Security Alerts Users to be Wary of E-mail Scam

Users are being warned by Yahoo! Security of the scam or phishing e-mails that are being sent by scammers, but claiming Yahoo! as the sender. The phishing e-mail contains the logo of Yahoo! Mail along with a caption that warns the users of blocking their accounts.

The e-mail reads that because of the clogging in the accounts of all Yahoo! users, all unused accounts will be shut down. To prevent account deactivation, users must confirm their e-mail ID by typing in the login information.

Yahoo! Security, in an e-mail, told ConsumerAffairs.com that users must presume that unwanted e-mails asking for their Yahoo! E-mail address, password, security key, or sensitive data is part of scam to gain illegal access to their account, as reported by consumeraffairs.com on April 28, 2010.

Yahoo! Security said that if the scammers gain access to the e-mail account of a user, they gain access to the sensitive e-mails of the user also. By hijacking the e-mail account, spammers might potentially use it to forward innumerous spam e-mails.

Yahoo! Security urges users to notice some indications often found in a scam e-mail. These help them identify a phishing website. The major symptom of a fake e-mail is poor grammar usage.

Never use the original password if something suspicious appears. If, through a fake password, a user is able to sign in, then it is most probably a phishing website. Never type in any additional info, simply close Internet browser. There are a few phishing websites which automatically show an error message, no matter what password has been provided by the user. Therefore, it is not sensible to believe the website to be legitimate if the bogus password is rejected.

In Yahoo!, a sign-in seal is an image or a secret message that is selected by the user to display the sign-in box for security purposes. As this seal is secret between the Yahoo! and the user, it ensures that the user is on a genuine Yahoo! website each time that computer is used to sign in. The user must look for custom image or text he has set. If it is not available, the user might probably be on a phishing site.

Related article: Yahoo Gets “Yam”med by a Worm

» SPAMfighter News - 5/10/2010