I WAS HACKED!!!

Just a heads up------my yahoo email was hacked last night. Coincidentally, at the same time yahoo was forcing my email format to change to their "new improved" format. Trying to fix it. DO NOT CLICK ON THE LINK IN THE SPAM EMAIL THEY SENT FROM MY ACCOUNT! I do NOT have computer access at 5am!

Damn, this makes me steaming mad.......if yahoo had left my account alone I'd be fine right now. I'm going to lose everything in that account, including all of your email addresses and the cute pics and stuff you've sent me over the years.

Yahoo accounts are the most easily hacked in the whole wide world. The pictures and emails shouldn't be gone, although all your addresses probably are. Take a careful look at it, change your password, and get yourself a gmail account with a nice complicated password while you wait. We can all send you a message at your new email address so you can build back your address book. Then you can start sending those Yahoo emails to your new email account before leaving that Yahoo one go and hopefully you will keep your photos and important messages.

I'm VERY happy with my gmail account. Minimal spam, and so far, no mysterious stuff going on.

Won't emailing myself a copy of what I want to save building a bridge for the spammer to follow to the new account?
Or is there another way to send the emails without doing that? Help, newbie here at this stuff.

The hacker is still sending out spam from my account, even folks I haven't heard from in years but I still had their old addys. 5 bounced back, with multiple addys on each one.

I don't believe it will make a difference, Fif. Just don't add the new gmail account to your Yahoo address book (or vice versa). I can't say any of this for certain, but I've been hacked twice, I believe, and once the passwords were changed, we were A-OK, and I forwarded messages to my gmail from my hacked Yahoo account, again, after the password was changed.

Start small too. There's no rush to get rid of your Yahoo account. As long as people know that odd things are happening, they should be careful about clicking on links that come from that account. You can take your time and save your strips, addresses, etc. as you get time.

I've been fortunate and haven't had to go through all of that mess, but I know lots of people who can back up BC's experience with password change. My work makes us change our passwords every 90 days whether or not bad things are happening. It's just a safety measure.

I changed my password yesterday and yet today I find 5 emails with multiple addresses from MY address book, where the hacker tried to spam people I haven't emailed in at least a year, and thankfully those bounced back from "being in the queue too long--undeliverable". I'm hoping those folks changed their email addys. Changed my password yet again, and had to write it down to remember it it's so convoluted. So is the new password for the new gmail account.

Managed to save some of my online scrapbook........thank heavens! And my contacts list, as well as all the email addys I had for some folks in here. My hands are soooooo tired from all that clicking for copy/paste..........

(we need a hurting icon)

So far so good, no new spam being sent from my yahoo account. Still copy/pasting stuff to transfer it over to the new account and not leave an electronic bridge. My wrist, shoulder, and back are sooooo sore.

Really, Fif, I don't think you will have a problem if you forward those important emails to your gmail account. I did it without a problem.

I did end up forwarding the Bijoux thread I'd saved........the yahoo kept freezing when I tried to copy/paste it.  I'm still going the copy/paste route for the mutts online scrapbook.....in the long run it will take up less room so I won't hit my storage capacity limit.  AND mom bought me a couple 32gb flash drives to save that all on, in case I get hacked or it disappears or something on me.
Still, so far so good.....I might've given that hacker the slip for now.  **whew**

I did get the email from about your yahoo account being hacked from your gmail account.  Other than that, I haven't received any emails from your yahoo account.  I now have four email accounts:| and I rarely use use two of those.

I have quite a few email addresses for various purposes.  We have one for electronic bills exclusively, now that everyone wants you to go paperless, and then I have one for my Yahoo groups, one for family & friends, one for business - like sending resumes, and one for things I've signed up to receive, like Land's End offers or things like that.

I've just foldered everything and set up an extra account on my Google one. I use that for things that I think will create spam. I still haven't decided to go paperless with my bills. I pay online, but I do think the companies should put SOMETHING into service. The least I can ask is 40 cents/month.

My bank insisted on paperless statements but I refuse to do what my sis does: automatic banking online.  That hacker would've had ALL my info if I were set up like she is. 
So far so good, no new spam being sent out.  Still saving the good stuff......some of the pics from years ago have disappeared and all I get now are red x's.  Guess I don't have to save those huh?

Red X means that the file is missing or corrupt on the server. No need to save that. 

One thing to remember about most (not all) hackers is that they aren't targeting you personally. They've done their stuff to thousands if not millions of people just to be a pain. The ones who do the most damage usually target things like credit card swipe things at stores (check it out... SmartPhone scariness) and bill companies directly. They aren't interested in your pictures or personal communications. They want credit card info and identity stuff like SSN so they can set up false identities for themselves or others. 

There are lots of articles online about protecting your identity. They're worth a read, but it's probably impossible to be completely secure and still lead a 21st century life.

I do automatic banking online - have for years.  I set it up after I got so sick back in 2005, and saw how lost Wesley would be if I were laid up for any length of time (or worse).  In our relationship, I do all the money handling, and he does the hard physical stuff.  We both needed cross training - not that I could do any of the really tough stuff, nor would he want to tackle the taxes and whatnot.  In those cases, we'd have to bring in outside help, but generally, I should know how to start the lawnmower and snow blower, and he should be able to go online and pay a few bills.

It does worry me to some extent, but banks insure your money, so I can only hope for the best.

But I was doing all the right things to protect myself.   And it worked--for over 7 years!  It was only when yahoo messed around with my account and changed the format that the hacker got in. 
Still, so far no new bad stuff being sent out that I've heard since I got the new password.  **crossing fingers**

Mine got hacked before the change-over. My IT guys at work have said for years that Yahoo is a notoriously easy target for hackers.

Figures, it was also the easiest free email to set up when I was a newbie.