something is emailing my yahoo address book with spam, sending it from me

In cases where employees of a company are participating unofficially, it may take a little while before they respond, particularly since responding to customers may not be their job. In these cases especially, patience and understanding is well rewarded. Talking in all caps, expressing disgust, actually make it *less* likely you'll get a response. Always keep in mind that free service don't come with the same level of customer support as a pay product. There simply isn't enough cash there for companies like Yahoo to pay a $20/hour person to provide technical support to individual comers.

The problem here you're describing sounds like various email viruses that I've seen hit Outlook. But that hit a vulnerability in Windows. If you're only using the Web browser to email through Yahoo, I don't see how a spammer or virus could infiltrate your contact list. Are you sure you don't have your contact list locally, in Outlook or some other contacts program?

For one thing, you may want to switch to a less vulnerabe browser. IE is probably less secure than, say, Firefox. Then again, this is just a stab in the dark. You may also want to run a scan for malware on your PC, perhaps something like this: http://housecall.trendmicro.com/

I'll keep my ear open to other possible fixes. Good luck!

I am also having the same problem. I check my yahoo e-mail using IE. I don't download my e-mails to Outlook.
My whole address book on yahoo website was deleted.
I think my account got highjacked.
I changed my password for a very safe one and even though I still got a spam from someone using my own e-mail.

I use firefox n have the same issue. Is there any way to retrieve the address book that has been erased?

http://www.geekstogo.com/forum/My-Yah...

I will be placing a forum on geekstogo or bleepingcomputer.com this is the 2nd time that this has happened to me. I am very careful, but I do access my yahoo account at work & at home. I have deleted all my yahoo contacts (after making a printed copy) and that does seem to stop the spam.

OMG it is SO frustrating, and embarrassing, I am hoping that one of the above services can help. I have done malware scans, used trendmicro, had AVG at home and switched to AVAST, at work we had symantic and I switched them to AVAST, I have also had spy bot. None of these have caught anything -- So good luck to you all that have this issue.

When it has happened I have made it a point to reply to all and tell everyone that the emails are not from me. I also always have myself as a contact on my yahoo.

Anywhoo's - good luck

I have just started having the same problem. I discovered it when one email bounced back undeliverable because that specific account was terminated. The illicit mailings are sent to all of addresses in my Yahoo contact folder. I have informed Yahoo on this matter and they continue to ignore me. The question remains, have Yahoo's databases been compromised? If so, why are we not able to get a response from Yahoo on this matter and what are they hiding?

Hi RM,

I started here on geeks to go and no problems since: http://www.geekstogo.com/forum/Malwar...

I haven't added any friends back to my contacts. I currently have all of my other email accounts added to the contacts to monitor if anything gets sent out. When it happened the second time it was a month after I thought that I fixed it. So this time I will wait 3 months.

Honestly, I don't expect Yahoo! to respond to any of these issues, so I will continue trying to keep it away on my own.

Good Luck
~nay~

I sent Yahoo additional information regarding the issue of a user's address book being accessed and/or Yahoo servers being compromised and here is the reply I received from them:

"We appreciate your report. We are currently investigating the email you
have reported and are aware of the problems associated with it."

Sounds like Yahoo is aware of this problem and they are either actively working on a solution, or they are just putting me off.

Try changing your password. Also change your security questions. Maybe make random answers to them. Also check to make sure you don't have another email that is associated with your account. (that they did so then can get your new password with)

This may solve your problem.
I had the same problem but on my hotmail account. I checked the email options and found that the Automatic Reply (or vacation reply) had been modified with the incriminated message!

I have unchecked all automatic replies and changed my password and it's ok for now.

However, I don't know how this came about so I can't say if it would reoccur.

Two e-mails sent from my Yahoo account yesterday. Neither me nor my wife were using it at the time they were sent. Both e-mails appeared in our Trash folder showing From our e-mail. Sent to all (or nearly all) of our contacts. I suspected a hacking of our pw, so I changed it. Also traced e-mail header info and reported one IP address to Road Runner.

I am a fellow victim of this spam blast that is using my contacts list from my e-mail address. I am wondering if there is a pattern that we all share regarding our e-mail accounts. The pattern that I am referring to the instant messenger that could be tied in with the e-mail account which shares this information with organization like Face book, X-Box Live, My space ect. Again, I am just throwing this out there but it is evident that the information is compromised somewhere and I was hoping through this process we could possibly narrow it down.
Thank you for your valuable feedback

Flipper,

Good idea. Personally, I did not have any accompanied IM program open or in use. Yahoo has the chat program open while I am logged into my email, but I rarely chat on it. It's been 6 months since the last time that this happened to me. I have added back some contacts besides my own email accounts and so far, so good. Although I am still leary to add back everyone.

I haven't seen any new help information out there. Best of luck to you.