Attn: computer geniuses, Yahoo! email question

Canon EF 24-70mm f/2.8L USM

07/13/2007 12:47:15 AM · #1

My friendâ��s Yahoo! email account is showing up as being disabled. Yahoo isnâ��t answering the phone until tomorrow and my friend is upset about it tonight.

Does anyone know if Yahoo! tracks access by ISP or IP address or if there is anyway my friend can find out where (physically) the disable request came from? My friend was able to access their account this afternoon, but not tonight. There has been a â��disturbance in the forceâ�� lately and we think this might have something to do with the sudden disabled account.

Thanks for your input!
-drew

violinist123

Canon EOS-6D

07/13/2007 12:51:24 AM · #2

Yes they do, and without a court order they won't share the info with your friend.

Canon EF 24-70mm f/2.8L USM

07/13/2007 12:57:42 AM · #3

I figured the request would have to be official, but it is good to know that there are steps in place for something like this.

Any other advice for pursuing this venture? Has anyone had any success in tracking ISP or IP addresses to a person/location. It's a weird situation that we would like to see resolved.

Thanks again, -drew

Message edited by author 2007-07-13 01:38:48.

violinist123

Canon EOS-6D

07/13/2007 07:31:51 AM · #4

Honestly I would just take it as a lesson learned and move on. Your friend should be using better passwords.

Nikon D200

Nikon AF-S DX NIKKOR 18-200mm f/3.5-5.6G ED VR II

07/13/2007 08:16:30 AM · #5

This happened once with an acquaintance of mine, and she was sble to resolve it somehow via her credit card number, which was attached to her Yshoo e-mail because of Yahoo Shopping. Something along the lines of reclaiming her e-mail account because she had the security code of the credit card number? Perhaps this an avenue for your friend to pursue.

Nikon AF-S Zoom-Nikkor 28-70mm f/2.8D IF-ED

07/13/2007 09:05:13 AM · #6

The thing is, their password was very complex. The account had important e-mails (that have been printed) for an ongoing investigation at their work. My friend had not used their credit card on Yahoo, so that option is unavailable. Thanks for the help so far.

I guess we will see what happens today with the Yahoo people. My friend would like their email account back.

Thanks, -drew
edit:spelling

Message edited by author 2007-07-13 09:05:45.

Nald

Nikon D700

07/13/2007 09:29:57 AM · #7

Originally posted by drewbixcube:

Cracking HTML passwords isn't all that hard. Sounds like someone was out to get your buddie, your friend should be mindful of what computer they are using to check the web based e-mail from.

Good luck.

aliqui

Nikon D300s

Nikon AF-S Nikkor 70-200mm f/2.8G ED VR II

07/13/2007 09:44:48 AM · #8

I've lost a few Yahoo accounts in my time. I was pretty upset the first time, because I had had it for 5 or so years. When I lost the next one I gave up on Yahoo.

My point is.. free web-based email is not a place you want to be conducting important email traffic.

Nikon AF-S DX Zoom Nikkor 17-55mm f/2.8G IF-ED

07/13/2007 12:29:23 PM · #9

Thanks everybody for the input. I don't know a great deal about computers or the things people who know them can do to them. I figured this would be a safe place to get some people who know their stuff to weigh in.

Originally posted by naldslc:

Cracking HTML passwords isn't all that hard. Sounds like someone was out to get your buddie, your friend should be mindful of what computer they are using to check the web based e-mail from.
Good luck.

That is what we are afraid of...top theory now is that someone sent an email they shouldn't have to my friend, and then hacked in to delete the message and (posing as my friend) request that Yahoo disables the account. I just don't know if Yahoo is able to retain any information about access to the account or if emails that are "deleted" are erased right away. I have no idea how web-based email companies operate.
-drew

MonicaJames

Nikon D200

07/13/2007 01:00:22 PM · #10

Yahoo mail is one of the easiest webmail service to hack.

Say, if I have your yahoo email account,
- I can try about 20 times to enter a wrong password on your account.
- That will disable that account temporarily. (doesn't mean that's it's hacked but temporarily inaccessible)
- For the original owner to be able to recuperate that account, questions such as your birthdate, city, etc, etc need to be answered correctly. You will need to remember all the answers, otherwise their system will not let you recover the account.
- if you call or email their customer service, their reply will be 'Sorry ma'am, there's nothing we can do for you at this time. Yahoo is a free-email service and you can just go ahead and create a new account'

So yeah, beware of Yahoo. ^_^

Message edited by author 2007-07-13 13:01:29.

pgirish007

Canon EOS-5D Mark IV

Canon EF 24-70mm f/2.8L II

07/13/2007 01:14:09 PM · #11

The way I do is to hookup Gmail/yahoo/hotmail account to Thunderbird (I believe you can also do that in outlook express) and let it download all new emails to my computer so that I can refer them in the future if something goes wrong with my email account. I have been doing that for a long time now and so far I donâ��t have any issue. I regularly take backup of data files so that I can have it back if computer goes down. At the sometime I have less emails in my only account so faster to load, no account limit exceed issue.

07/13/2007 01:17:57 PM · #12

Originally posted by MonicaJames:

- For the original owner to be able to recuperate that account, questions such as your birthdate, city, etc, etc need to be answered correctly. You will need to remember all the answers, otherwise their system will not let you recover the account.

My friend tried this with all the correct answers, and they were told their account had been disabled or deleted. Upon researching, the only way to disable or delete an account (if not done by Yahoo for breach of service agreement) is to log in and request it done. For these reasons we are interested in ISP/IP information on who accessed their account. Talk about your PITA!

07/13/2007 01:19:44 PM · #13

Originally posted by pgirish007:

They are definately looking into something like this once everything is back up and running...we just hope if messages were deleted from the original account (by the hacker) they can be recovered.

Message edited by author 2007-07-13 13:51:36.