Yahoo Email hacked. Need Advice Pls.

[Fern]

Thanks for looking.

Background: My father's Yahoo email has been hacked. This was realized when everyone on his contact list began receiving an email (supposedly) from him saying he needed help and would they reply. This hack also resulted in his contact list 'disappearing'. He contacted Yahoo who was totally unhelpful, so I'm turning to the ever trusty Anandtech community.

1st question: What's the point of this hack etc.? We're curious. (They already have the email addresses, so we don't readily see the point.)

2nd question: Can he recover his contact list? If so how? (This is the most important question to him).

3rd question: What steps should he take in response to this hack to prevent further mischief?

Thanks in advance,

Fern

 

[Thebobo]

Have you tried other computers to log on to see if contact list is gone? Its web based email correct?

I spent literally a month of and on to try and get my Att/yahoo email unlocked. I finely talked to someone here in the US and I was able to get it resolved.

 

[Fern]

(1) Have you tried other computers to log on to see if contact list is gone? (2) Its web based email correct?

I spent literally a month of and on to try and get my Att/yahoo email unlocked. I finely talked to someone here in the US and I was able to get it resolved.

(1) I don't believe he has (I certainly haven't). To be clear, he can access his account but the contact list is simply empty.

(2) I suppose it is. I.e., I'm thinking his contact list resides on a Yahoo server. But I'm a hardware person, not software, so I don't actually know.

Fern

 

[Thebobo]

If he could log on an another computer or maybe he would let you try to log on with your PC. I suspect its his PC.

 

[Fern]

Thanks, we'll try it.

Fern

 

[ch33zw1z]

Might not be anything you can do.

Prevent this in the future by using a better password, not allowing your browser to save said password, using 2 factor authentication, and not clicking on the pop ups that say you're a winner.

I use Safe in Cloud to manage and generate passwords.

 

[Thebobo]

Dang didn't realize this was buried in the ask an IT thread lol who comes here? I saw it on the side bar. Kind of an odd place

 

[Exterous]

Often times hackers are just looking for verifiable\current contact information for better targeting of phishing attacks. Tons of email addresses are 'junk' or not checked that often so a list of 'known responders' increases the chances of a successful phishing attack or can fetch an increased sale price

The only thing I can think of for contacts:
https://help.yahoo.com/kb/SLN22055.html

Better things to do: Use a separate password for your email than everything else. Don't log into it on public computers. Be careful about logging into it on public wifi. See if yahoo supports "Trusted Devices" where you need to authorize certain devices (your laptop and cell phone for example) to be able to use the email. Before it can be used on a different device it has to be authorized - typically via a link sent to email (so its good to have 2-3 authorized devices in case one breaks or gets lost). Two factor authentication is another good step.

 

[ch33zw1z]

I bailed on my old Yahoo account after the second time they got hacked, lol, they dgaf

 

[bruceb]

You should be able to get the contacts back easily ... see link: https://help.yahoo.com/kb/SLN22055.html

Restore your entire contacts list
Are you sure? - Yahoo Contacts will be restored to how it looked on a particular date. New contacts you've added since then will be lost.

1. In Yahoo Mail, click the Contacts icon
   
   .
2. Click Actions | select Restore from backup.
3. Select a date to restore your contacts to from the drop-down menu.
4. Click Restore.

 

[Fern]

Thanks everyone,

I'll head over to his house tonight and see if can get it restored.

Fern

 

[Thebobo]

Any luck?

 

[Carson Dyle]

Does he use webmail or an email client? If he's using an email client, then it could be a compromise of his computer rather than a hack of his Yahoo account.

 

[Fixel Algorithms]

Yahoo support 2 Factor Authentication with a mobile number which you should activate to prevent more cases like that.
Though it seems that they require it only when logging from new machines.

Hence it means that if the machine used to log to Yahoo is compromised you're back in square 1.

If you get it restored, I would move to Outlook.
They have a great way to log in into the account using 2 FA.

 

[GrumpyMan]

I had something like that happen recently when a hack that really occurred in 2016, where they stole a bunch of Yahoo/AT&T accounts with passwords too. I got an email spoofed with my own email address as the sent by, like it was sent by me, trying to blackmail me saying they had cam footage of me going to a porn site and wacking off to it which was recorded from my own cam at the same time. They wanted me to deposit $717.00 into a bitcoin account or they would send a link to all the emails in my address book they that had obtained from said hack. Well of course it was just a bluff since that never occured, but some people might have fallen for it. The hack did happen though since they had my password from 2016 in the email as proof. Of course I change those all the time and now have 2 step verification on all accounts. I offered to send them better footage of me wacking off for real so they could have something juicy, but apparently they weren't interested in my proposal since I wanted a couple of grand for it..