Keep Your ID Safe
For my private email-communication I used to use a Yahoo account. Well, at least until recently. Something terrible happened to my Yahoo account. Someone stole it.
[How someone hijacked my Yahoo-account]
A few days ago while working at home I got an email from someone. This person had written something like this: "Jalal joon, I liked the picture of you on http://www...com/jalal... and I liked it very much". I was very surprised and wanted to know what this picture was. I clicked on the link and was lead to another (apparently) Yahoo page that asked for my ID and password. I felt that the situation was quite abnormal but even though, without thinking so much, I typed my Yahoo ID and password. I was then lead to some Yahoo group that had nothing to do with the subject of the email I had received. I deleted the email and logged out without realizing the seriousness of the situation.
The next morning I went to work. On my computer at work, I always keep many browser windows open as a reminder of the pages I am currently looking at and I usually do not log out (I do however make sure that others do not have access to my computer). Anyway, after reading my emails on my university account, I opened a new browser window typed www.yahoo.com and tried to login to my Yahoo-account. I couldn't log in. There was something wrong. My password was not valid anymore. I noticed, however, that another browser window from the day before was connected to my Yahoo-account. I opened it and realised that I could still read my emails from that account.
I saw that the most recent emails on my account were from my Internet service provider. These emails were answers to a password alteration request. I started realising what was going on. Someone had got hold of my Yahoo account and was trying to get hold of the domain names that I own. After trying for a few hours I managed to talk to someone that worked at the company where I keep my domain name accounts. They were very helpful and performed a brief analysis and started believing in my story and restored my account. I had managed to save my domain names before the intruder had had the opportunity to transfer them to another account.
Unfortunately, I couldn't communicate with Yahoo concerning my ID. The only help I got from Yahoo were some predefined online FAQ-pages that did not include my case. The details of my Yahoo-account had changed and there was no way the automatic help system could relate me to my Yahoo-ID. There is not a single telephone number on Yahoo that one can call to get help. It is probably too much service to expect from a free-service. For the time being it looks as if my Yahoo-account is gone forever. I have been lured.
[I could have avoided this]
Clicking on a link is not dangerous. You should however be more careful when you are requested to fill forms and provide information about yourself. In my case, after clicking the link which was included in the email, I got to a page that looked like a Yahoo-page but in fact it was not. If I had simply looked at the address line in my browser I would have noticed that it is a joker that is asking me for my ID and not yahoo. I am very disappointed in myself. For God sake I am a computer programmer myself and can write similar programs if I want to, how could I be fooled so!?
[Be Careful]
You can not imagine how much more careful I am after this incident. I delete every strange email immediately and do not open any attached files that I have not requested. It does not matter who the sender is. Internet is for sharing and communication, but it is scary too. Sooner or later someone will be prepared to spend some time to bother you somehow. This is the price we have to pay in order to keep the good things about the Internet.
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