I barely use my Yahoo account anymore, but it is attached to several of my business dealings including my Pay Pal account, which is how I get paid from my various assignments and blog work. The other night, I received a very serious email with the following:
Accounts,Yahoo would shut down all unused Accounts,You will have to confirm your E-mail by fill in your login info below after clicking the reply botton or your Account will be suspended within one week for security reasons.
CONFIRM YOUR IDENTITY. VERIFY YOUR FREE YAHOO ACCOUNT NOW !!!
* Username: ………………………… .
* Password: ………………………… ..
* Date of Birth: ……………………….
* Occupation:………………. ………….
* Country of Residence:……………….. …………
After following the instructions in the sheet, your account will not be interrupted and will continue as normal. Thanks for your attention to this request. We apologize for any inconvenience.
Warning!!! Account owner that refuses to update his or her account before two weeks of receiving this warning will lose his or her account permanently.
Of course I was smart enough to not fall for the banana in the tailpipe. First off, the email was sent from mailaccountcentre057@gmail.com, hardly an official Yahoo account email. And secondly, it asked for information that Yahoo itself would never ask for.
These types of fraudulent emails have been circulating for years. But, I found out that a relative received the same email and, because they thought it was legit, replied to the email with their information.
So even though I could assume that you, my readers, are above replying to an email such as this, I cannot. We all have levels of technological know how and savvy—so if you received this email, or one similar, please do not reply with your information.
You may want to forward it to your email provider so they can track down the culprit.
Beware of these types of scams that have been infiltrating the Internet far too often.
VivaLaBrandi says
crazy the things these spammers come up with to steal info. by the way I added your blogs fb page to my blogs new fb page favorites :).
Vivica Shade says
I use my Yahoo account for almost everything aside from my Hotmail account. The key factor is, if you’re account is being shut down by Yahoo or any other company for that matter, they won’t send you information within the email asking you to reset it. They will tell you to go and log into your account and/or contact the company directly. Emails that are officially from Yahoo usually have the Yahoo logo next to the unopened email. Plus, Yahoo will have you set up a separate email address when you create your account for security purposes. If anything changes on your account, Yahoo will send an email to the other email address on your account.
If anyone has clicked on any of these “phishing” emails, they need to go into their accounts and change their passwords immediately. Yahoo will NEVER send you an email asking you to reset your account by filling out a form via email.
The Cubicle Chick says
Vivica, you are absolutely correct. In addition, Yahoo saw my post on Twitter and sent me this link for those who have been phished to report it to Yahoo. http://help.yahoo.com/l/us/yahoo/security/phishing/phishing-02.html;_ylt=Asjel4KAG9mh72deur4FMbyuXyN4. My relative was able to change their account information but we are still monitoring the situation closely.
Samantha Dermot says
I haven’t received any stuffs like this from so called yahoo. Oh well, yahoo management must put some effort to solve this fraudulent email because not everybody’s aware of this activity.