No Phishing Here

Protect yourself from nefarious and sneaky scammers

“There’s a sucker born every minute,” according to that old carny saying. We’re not saying that folks who work carnivals are all swindlers, or that you’re a gullible “mark” (that’s carnyspeak for “target of a scam”). However, some insidious people do try to scam people online, and they’re getting constantly trickier with their shady “phishing” tactics.

Phishing is an attempt to steal passwords and private account information via a fake web site or email that looks like those of trusted companies. A phishing web site or email may look identical to the real thing, so it can be hard to tell if it’s fake.

Here are some tips to help you spot and fight these scammers.

How to Recognize a Scam Email
Phishing emails may look and sound official; scammers may use familiar corporate colors and logos as they ask you to verify your account or share your password. Often these fraudsters will tell (misinform) you that your account has been disabled. Also, do not reply or click links in emails to access your account. Go through the interface to access your account.

Don’t Give out Account or Personal Info to Anyone
The biggest giveaway in a fake email is that it asks for your username and password. We will never send you an email asking for your password.

Another way to tell is by looking at the sender’s email address. Most of the official communications that Yahoo! sends you will come from an address that looks like this: solutions(at)ysm.yahoo-email.com. If you get an email from a yahoo.com address (the type of email address any consumer can get) asking you for info, it’s a good bet that it’s a fake.

Use the Yahoo! Sign-in Seal
We have installed what’s called a “sign-in seal” on our log-in page. Already in use by many financial institutions, a sign-in seal is a cookie-based secret message or image that is displayed on your computer only. (That is, the machine you use to log in to your account.)

If you use more than one computer, you’ll need to set up your seal for each one. You can create your own custom text message to use as a seal, or upload a personal image. Check out this article for more details on the sign-in seal.

There is no Yahoo! Lottery
Don’t be fooled by people pretending to be Yahoo! and offering cash prizes. We would never send you information about a contest you never entered. If you receive a message like “Final Notification: Yahoo! Mail Winner!” or “Your Email Address Has Won $XX million,” it’s a scam. Don’t reply to the email, don’t click any links in it, and never divulge any personal information. As we mentioned already, do not click links in emails to access your account. Go through the interface to access your account.

To learn more about how you can guard against other Internet-based scams, please visit these resources:
• Common Abuse Issues
• Yahoo! Security Center

—The Team