Users of free email accounts need to monitor those accounts to minimize problems.
Some scumbag in Spain hacked into one my friend’s Yahoo! email account a couple of hours ago via the Yahoo! mobile app. The password for this particular account is not a simple one to figure out as it consists of many random letters and numbers, etc., so it begs the question if a larger problem may possibly exist with stolen passwords of Yahoo! email accounts.
We discovered this problem immediately, because I was one of the recipients of an email sent by the hacker using my friend’s account. The email the hacker sent provided a link to a Canadian pharmacy that ships worldwide, with the link to the pharmacy prefaced with this wording: ”With our shop you don’t need to wait your order! Really!”
Knowing that my friend would not be one that would be sending out links to a Canadian pharmacy selling Viagra, Cialis, antibiotics, pain killers, etc., I called him immediately and alerted him to the email. Sure enough, the sent email resided in his sent email box, and he was able to trace the log-in information to find out its origin (Spain) and related data.
My friend immediately changed his password on that account, sent an email to all of the other recipients of the hacker’s email sent out from his account so that those recipients would know that he had been hacked, and is now taking steps to clean out that email account and set up another. What an annoyance!!!
I’m going to make sure that my own passwords for my several email accounts are changed frequently and that I keep my email boxes pretty empty at all times. Any information that I want to archive will be kept out of my email boxes and instead be copied and pasted to another, non-email related location.
Such is life in our technological world. Free email accounts are very useful, but we use them at our own risk. Therefore, user beware!
Tagged with: happenings, miscellany
Note: Event information can change due to all kinds of circumstances. Always visit the websites listed under sources to confirm dates, times, location, and other information.
Don’t miss a beat! You are invited to subscribe to the “Beat” by using the Email link on the right of the home page, or through your choice of web-based feed readers made available when you click on the Feed link button at the very top right of the home page.
DISCLOSURE OF MATERIAL CONNECTION: The writer has no connection to nor was paid by any company, brand or product described in the articles above.
Exact same thing happened to me today. I had a strong password and all of a sudden I get many emails of mail daemon sent failure. Apparently my email was trying to send to everyone on my contact list, including people with invalid emails. I logged in to my yahoo and went to account and viewed recent logins and sure enough about 15 minutes before the failed emails were sent out, there was a login from Spain. Had to change my password. These people need to get a life.
I agree – this is quite upsetting when it happens. I no longer keep contact information in my email account and instead keep a list of email addresses elsewhere. That isn’t as handy, but at least a hacker would not have access to any of my email addresses if he/she would figure out my password. Thanks for reading and commenting! rcj
I’ve literally had this happen to me 30 mins ago. Log in was from slovenia. I’m annoyed because I only really use that account for job applications
Sorry to learn about your problem with a hacker. This causes a lot of work and frustration when it happens to someone – do hope that you are able to resolve everything satisfactorily. rcj