Is my Yahoo mail compromised or hacked?

rambowski

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Aug 17, 2011
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I'm not sure if this is the right department to ask this but here we go.

I realize much of this is my fault as well as I haven't changed the password for a while now, nor have I changed the alternate email along with it.

So basically I tried to log onto one of my backup yahoo email accounts, only to find that the password is not being accepted. I don't have caps lock on or anything. I don't recall having signed up onto any new website at all.

PROBLEM:

- I can't log into my yahoo mail, it says "invalid ID or password"

- The alternate email was an ancient hotmail account from the late 90s that I haven't accessed in 9+ YEARS, so resetting my password wouldn't work.

- The security questions are from early 2000s so I don't remember either, so I can't reset the password

- I called a Yahoo # 1-866-REMOVED and it told me to go to "help.yahoo.com" and click "account info"

- Seems it mostly wants me to reset my password. A lot of the links take me back to the page to reset my password. But like I stated above, I'm stuck at the probably expired hotmail account and I couldn't even think of what the answer to my security question could be


So is anyone experiencing this? Am I just a victim of a very common daily thing or is there some well known virus/malware going around?

Does anyone know if there's a way Yahoo! can help me salvage that email account?

Yahoo also has an option to select that my account has been compromised. Does all this sound like its compromised?

It's not my "primary" email but I did use it to register/sign up for a lot of things over the years. If possible, I'd just check to see that it wasn't used to sign up for anything that could screw me over money-wise or credit-wise and then just terminate the entire account.

Much thanks for anyone who has suggestions!!!
 
There is no way to tell if you just forgot your username or password or if someone changed it. The only ones that can help you to get your account info back is Yahoo. If you think your password is right and someone got a hold of it and changed it, by all means use the compromised option.
 

mrmaia

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Aug 9, 2011
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18,640


It seems like you haven't accessed that Yahoo account for a looooooooooong time. It's quite normal to forget the password like that, so it's "a very common daily thing".

Most email providers lock unactive accounts, so it may be the case too. I had one account locked there after 2 years or so without logging in, and had trouble to get it back - although I got it.

It'll be very hard for you to retrieve information from Yahoo since you don't remember your security questions, you can't access your alt email and so Yahoo can't be sure you are really the account owner. But anyway insist, explain the situation, if necessary send some documents and pray for them to help you :)