Yahoo! Phishing Scam is Stealing Passwords

By Evan Asher July 19th in Blog

According to Wikipedia, “phishing is the criminally fraudulent process of attempting to acquire sensitive information such as usernames, passwords and credit card details by masquerading as a trustworthy entity in an electronic communication.”  The latest phishing scam making the rounds is an e-mail ostensibly sent from Yahoo! asking you to provide sensitive information to prevent them from shutting your account down.

In order to lend legitimacy to their e-mail, the sender has used Yahoo!’s logo and customer care satisfaction survey header.  Nevermind that this is not a survey, upon seeing the Yahoo! logo and official sounding language, many people accept the e-mail as authentic.  Replying to the e-mail with your login information gives the criminals full access to your account.

Phishing has become a very common way to hack into accounts because it requires very little effort on the criminal’s part.  Instead of having to break passwords or hack through secure systems, you simply ask the victim to send you the pertinent information. The e-mails are engineered to prey upon the reader’s fear.  They usual contain a threat, in this case to shut down your Yahoo! account.

Even recipients who feel fairly certain the e-mail is scam still report a nagging worry because they don’t want their Yahoo! account deleted.  The key is to remember that a legitimate company will never ask for you to send them sensitive information like usernames and passwords via e-mail.  E-mail is not a secure channel of communication.   Remembering to scrutinize requests like this will help you keep your accounts safe.

Below is the body of this scam e-mail, click on the image at the upper right to view the e-mail as it actually appears:

To ensure that your account information remains accurate and secure we notify you whenever this information changes.

Due to the congestion in all Yahoo!accounts, Yahoo! will be shutting down some of our accounts, both premium and free accounts for security reasons. In order to avoid the deactivation of your account, you will have to confirm your e-mail by filling your Login Info below after clicking the reply button. We are really sorry for any inconvenience this might cause you.

CONFIRM YOUR IDENTITY. VERIFY YOUR YAHOO ACCOUNT NOW !!!

Your -Username:—————————-
Your -Password::—————————-
Your -Date Of Birth:————————-
Your -Occupation:—————————
Your Country Of Residence:—————-

After you must -have followed the instructions in the sheet, your Yahoo! account will not be interrupted and will continue as normal. Thank you for your usual co-operation. We apologize for any inconvenience.

Regards, Yahoo! Account Services

————————-

We are really sorry for any inconvenience this might cause you.