My email was hacked, How?

[peppermint]

This week someone broke into both of my Yahoo accounts and sent out spam to everyone on my contacts list.

I'm still guessing as to how this happened.

I've been using Outpost firewall and Avast and Malwarebytes and haven't had any problem with virus or malware for months so this surprised me.

Can anyone clue me into whats going on and how to prevent this again?

[AdvancedSetup]

Hello , and welcome to Malwarebytes.org

Almost impossible to track something like that down without someone with the appropriate skill set being on your system and doing a forensic analysis, even then it might not be possible after the fact.

Is it possible a relative, friend knows your account credentials and is playing a joke? Have you used your mail account on any other machines at work, school, library, friends, etc.?

For the time being I would follow the advice below and let someone with experience fighting Malware assist you in reviewing your current system.

We don't work on Malware removal in the general forums.

Please print out, read and follow the directions here, skipping any steps you are unable to complete. Then post a NEW topic here.

One of the expert helpers there will give you one-on-one assistance when one becomes available.

After posting your new post make sure under options that you select Track this topic and choose one of the Email options so that you're alerted when someon has replied to your post.

Alternatively, as a paying customer, you can contact the help desk at support@malwarebytes.org

[swagger]

Peppermints,

This may sound funny but I have a former co-worker/friend who had the same thing happen to her last week. I got this spam e-mail from her out of the blue last week which was addressed to her entire contacts list with a malicious link in it. So of course, i called her up and asked if she sent this or not. She said no so I started to give her the "you need to scan your computer ASAP" speech but I also said, you may want to contact Yahoo. About an hour later, she called me back and said Yahoo told her that some accounts had been compromised and they are working on the issue. The problem was on their end, not my friend's. You might want to contact Yahoo as well. I hope this helps!

Regards,

Keith

[peppermint]

Peppermints,

This may sound funny but I have a former co-worker/friend who had the same thing happen to her last week. I got this spam e-mail from her out of the blue last week which was addressed to her entire contacts list with a malicious link in it. So of course, i called her up and asked if she sent this or not. She said no so I started to give her the "you need to scan your computer ASAP" speech but I also said, you may want to contact Yahoo. About an hour later, she called me back and said Yahoo told her that some accounts had been compromised and they are working on the issue. The problem was on their end, not my friend's. You might want to contact Yahoo as well. I hope this helps!

Regards,

Keith

Thanks for the tip. My friend also had her email used the same week but she was also using my computer so I thought the problem was here at first but now I'll check into Yahoo.

I do use an unsecured wireless network as my primary internet connection ( I just pick up a neighbor's signal ).

How unsafe is this?

[mountaintree16]

Not very safe. You don't have your OWN internet connection, Peppermint?

You should have a good firewall.

Do you have an anti-virus?

Also, your neighbor really should have protections in place so that his or her wireless isn't accessible to others; this presents a potential security risk to your neighbor as well.

I'll send this thread along to someone who may have an answer for you though, as I don't know very much about this sort of thing.

[swagger]

Using unsecured wireless networks is extremely unsafe. Someone could be setting you up with a trap or anyone malicious enough could connect to the same network and gain access to your computer. Have you ran MBAM and your anti-virus recently? Did the scans find anything?

Regards,

swagger