[anna1]

i have two yahoo accounts and i never receive any spam through one of my accounts.
one day, i received a weird email with really weird symbols, letters had slashes above them, so
i deleted it. then when i check my other email account, the same email was in that account too.

after receiving this email, checking my email takes a REALLY REALLY REALLY long time, however
my internet for other websites runs perfectly fine though.

i've scanned my computer with norton anti-virus, spywareblaster, spybot search & destroy and
nothing has come up.

what's going on??

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Hi anna1...Welcome to G2G!

Sounds like your accounts have been hijacked. Did you have the same password for both accounts? In any case, log into your accounts and change the passwords. If this is the problem you should notice a difference very quickly.

Let us know if this helps...

wannabe1

[wannabe1]

Hi anna1...Welcome to G2G!

Sounds like your accounts have been hijacked. Did you have the same password for both accounts? In any case, log into your accounts and change the passwords. If this is the problem you should notice a difference very quickly.

Let us know if this helps...

wannabe1

[anna1]

hello!
thanks for your quick response! i really appreciate it.

i did have the same password for both accounts.

few questions just so i could learm more about this stuff:

what does it mean to have my account "hijacked"?
how does this happend? how did they do it?
why do people hijack email accounts? what do they do with it?

i did one day select "remember my ID on this computer" on the yahoo mail page, does this have
anything to do with it?

or can this happen if i downloaded some files from a friends computer?

Edited by anna1, 15 November 2005 - 09:52 PM.

[Comrade General]

hello!
thanks for your quick response! i really appreciate it.

i did have the same password for both accounts.

few questions just so i could learm more about this stuff:

what does it mean to have my account "hijacked"?
how does this happend? how did they do it?
why do people hijack email accounts? what do they do with it?

i did one day select "remember my ID on this computer" on the yahoo mail page, does this have
anything to do with it?

Some of these you don't have to be a geek for! Weee!
Don't trust my answer completely, but I believe I know what some of the answers.

What does hijacked mean? It means just like a car being hijacked. Someone stole your e-mail account maybe.

How does it happen? Sometimes an e-mail can contain stuff that can give a hacker access to your computer.(Not so sure on that one)

How did they do that? Well, the e-mail gave them access probably.(Not so sure aswell.)

Why and what would they do with your accounts? It could contain information they want, credit card numbers or maybe something personel. They could get this information and use it to their advantage.

Remember your ID? I don't think that should have any effect.(Not so sure).


Trusted techs correct me if I am wrong.
Remember, don't trust me completely on my answers.

I would say if you still have access to your e-mail accounts change the password of each to different passwords.

[wannabe1]

Hello anna1...

what does it mean to have my account "hijacked"?

Hijacking an account means that someone gains access to you account by discovering your password...that combined with your username (gleaned from your e-mail address) will give them access to the account.

why do people hijack email accounts? what do they do with it?

The most common reason for hijacking accounts is for use as a spamming platform...that's what slows things down. You may have been sending hundreds of e-mails a minute without even knowing it. Why do they do it? For profit! There's a lot of gullable people out there...

i did one day select "remember my ID on this computer" on the yahoo mail page, does this have
anything to do with it?

This feature can be good and bad. I use it for the convenience it provides at login, BUT I change the passwords on my accounts frequently...something I would also recommend to you. And use separate passwords for each account...I have so many that I have a notebook to write them in when I change them. NEVER keep a list of your passwords on your computer.

how does this happend? how did they do it?

There is software out there that will "run randoms" until a password is discovered...they are then associated with the username and listed to a database to use later for spamming. All in all, quite a racket!

Hope this helps.

Have your accounts returned to somewhere near normal after resetting your passwords?

wannabe1

[anna1]

i changed my password on one of my accounts and it's still running really slow.

all i changed was the capitalization of one of the letters, maybe i should change it entirely.

i'm currently trying to change my other account but it's taking forever to get into my account.

i'll try chaning both passwords to something very different, and will let you know how things go..

[wannabe1]

anna1...

Definitely change them to completely different ones and make them tough! Made up words work very well!

It may take up to 48 hours for things to calm down with the accounts. If you don't see an improvement by then, post back and we'll see if there may be another problem. I've seen the hijacking before, though...and that's exactly the symptoms that show up.

wannabe1

[anna1]

will do.

thanks!

[anna1]

thanks wannabe1!

my email account is back to normal!

i didn't know there was such a thing as hacking your email account, you were very helpful.

anna1

[wannabe1]

I'm glad your accounts have returned to normal.

Security on the internet has become of paramount importance. With web-based e-mail accounts such as Yahoo, it is essential to change your passwords every few weeks. These e-mail providers are just too large and busy to monitor everything that goes on in their portals so it is up to the user to protect themselves.

Good luck in the future....

wannabe1