Beware of this phishing email

Have you received an email like the one below?



They claimed to be from Yahoo Customer care asking you to update your account by filling in the blanks of the requested information like your username, password, date of birth, occupation and country of residence. If you'll not reply, they warned that your account will be suspended.

DON"T BE FOOLED!

I replied an email like this before and after that I couldn't open my yahoo email. My friends are calling me, informing me that they received an email that I'm stucked somewhere in UK and that I'm in dire need for help and financial assistance. Here's the rest of the story.

The good thing is, I retrieved my email after contacting the Yahoo customer care. But before that I always access my account so that it will be LOCKED over and over again so that both me and the hacker couldn't open my account. Here's the rest of the story.

Thanks to Yahoo customer care for their efficient service. I used my yahoo account for almost a decade and it's hard to just give it up. If you experience the same thing here's what I can suggest:

1. Report immediately to yahoo customer care that you couldn't use your account and your password doesn't work. For me, I informed them I was able to reply to a phishing email which claimed to be from Yahoo and after that my account was used to send "HELP" messages to all the people in my address book and I couldn't logged in.

2. Submit all details of your account as much as you can remember. It's the information you used upon registration- birthday, country/territory, and postal code. These were all changed by the hacker except the birthday coz it's kept on file. I'm honest to tell the Yahoo Customer Care that I forgot the Security Question that I created but if they could give it to me, I could give them the correct answer. They're able to produce the Security Question which I made upon registration and I gave them the answer.

3. Be persistent. Once you followed the instructions given and still it doesn't work, don't hesitate to contact the Verification department .

I written this down because a friend of mine experienced the same thing just yesterday. She couldn't open her facebook account and blog too. Maybe because, she's using the same username and password for all those accounts. It would be better if you create different passwords for all your social networking accounts and write down your passwords in your personal notebook for safekeeping.

Hope my friend's account will be retrieved sooner.

Happy Sunday!

Update of the hacked yahoo account of mine

Last Monday evening when I logged in to my yahoo account I couldn't get through because somebody already hacked into my account! The rest of the story is HERE. I remembered that on Sunday evening, I received an email from "YAHOO" as it claimed, asking for my attention to update my yahoo ID and password in the form given. Failure to comply after 24 hours may result to inactivation of my account. My bad....it's too late when I realized that it's just a phishing email! It's the culprit of the hacking of my yahoo account. It's one of the lessons I learned in a HARD way!

To make the situation worst, when I try to verify my identity by providing details to retrieve my password- the birth date, country of residence I used upon registration (almost 8 years ago) and the postal code, it failed!!! Is it possible that the hacker already changed my personal information jeopardizing my claim? I already wrote to yahoo customer care. They asked for the answer of the SECURITY QUESTION of my profile to administer the verification process. Recently, they just advised me to contact the Account Verification Department using the phone number they gave me but I couldn't get through with it so I sent another letter to them. I really hope that there's still HOPE to retrieve my account. I always access my account so that it will be LOCKED over and over again so that both me and the hacker couldn't open my account. It's hard to give up on that account. I have so many memories there worth to be cherished.


On the other side of the coin, this incident let me know that I got friends who are willing to help when I'll be stuck "in London". You see, they're calling me and my family to confirm if what's my real situation...if I'm OK...if I'm really in "London" coz all they know is that I'm here in Thailand coz they're willing to lend me money or send any financial assistance. They're relieved when they read my post here and in Facebook that I'm fine but a bit worried at the same time that I'm a victim of phishing email.

Anyway, it's not yet the end of the world...I know this will be sort out in His time.