Comments on: Phishers hijack IM accounts

Scammers are sneaking into instant-messaging accounts to send out lures for their information-thieving Web sites.

[cma299]

Yahoo Geocities

90% of yahoo geocrap sites are scams from porn to phishing - they need to rethink ho people sign up and maybe they need to very the sites they host and this wouldn't be a problem

[i_made_this]

No thanks Yahoo!

As long as Yahoo & the others continue to use the MSN IM core under license (and optimising IM content by support of the IE browser only), a user should be crystal clear that he or she is exposing themself to the easiest form of being hacked on earth. No matter what "marketing rubbish" Yahoo chooses to advertise about alleged new "security features," their (and other IM clients supporting the MSFT programs core under license or direct from MSN) IM will remain easily hackable now as it's always been.

If one is serious about a more secure IM experience, one might wish to try to get one's friends, family and colleagues to switch over to an IM based on the Jabber core that supports Firefox etal like GoogleTalk etal. Still, wisdom dictates prudence in clicking on links from even your best friends and closest family members if they know little about internet security and networking protocols.

IM like other web-based services must be viewed in the same manner that we're trained to drive a car. Defensive driving is critical; the most conservative and safest assumumption is that everyone else on the highway is clueless and dangerous to your health and well-being. Well, even moreso on IM, because we're got some serious malicious players on that highway, which is not the case on an automotive highway.

[42n8k9]

well said

Right to the point. Good driving analogy. We live in a time of bothersome attempts to hijack our info, it's only prudent to have a cautious mindset when opening any port or other internet access. Thanks

[visionep]

A little late?

This scam has been circulating for almost a year now. I've had a couple of friends that fell victim to the scam and complained to Yahoo. Guess what Yahoo did... Absolutely nothing. I guess when a few of their internal employees get taken they start to take notice.

For the reporter that posted this story, it would be great if you could give some useful information about how to remedy a problem like this instead of just reporting that there is a problem.

If you have had a chance to talk to Yahoo representatives directly what do they recommend people do that have been scammed? Where should people report geocities pages that are blatant phishing scams? How can a user regain their IM account after having the account stolen and the password changed?

A friends account was sending me phishing IM's to me for a couple of months before the account finally was disabled?. The messages were all exactly the same, can't Yahoo search for the text and detect which accounts have been compromised automatically?

A good followup article on this subject would be really cool for all of the poor suckers that have not only been scammed, but have been done a disservice by Yahoo's unresponsiveness to the problems in its system.