Is an emaill hacker identifiable from the "non-delivery" replies I got?

[W1GUH]

A few weeks ago my email account was hacked and the hack proceeded to send a piece of spam to everyone in my address book. This is a little puzzling.

I don't use my w1guh@yahoo.com account for general email, it's only for ham-related stuff. This is in contrast to my general email account which collects ALL of the spam and junk that comes through. I would have expected that general account to be far more vulnerable to attacks than an email account with only limited usage.

Is there any way of determining who did this? Maybe from the "undeliverable (or whatever)" replies I got back?

[edit] Yahoo was on top of this. Very soon after I got all those "undeliverables" back, Yahoo strongly suggested that I change my password, which I did, and there have been no further developments.

[WØTKX]

I got the same problem, same story, w0tkx@yahoo.com. Mine came from a ham radio person, in my address book. Wasn't that person's fault. Just opening the email from a known and trusted person caused it to happen.

Happened in late October. You're not in my address book, so it didn't come from me. Whew. ;)

I was using Chrome, but the method worked with all browsers and all OS's. Yahoo mail servers got spoofed.
The vector came from PA. I contacted Yahoo, they already knew about it. And gave me steps to stop it fast.

The steps I needed to take; logged out of everywhere, changed my password, the hackers got the old one.
Then checked my login history with Yahoo, and sure enough... logins from PA first, then TX. Harrumph.

Luckily I only used that password for that account. Next, Yahoo has a validation that uses a picture you upload to them. The spoofed servers won't have that picture, as long as you verify that you are logged in as you, on a real server. Then check after that by looking at your login history. In my case, the PA and TX logins got stopped cold.

This stops any further mail server spoofing, as the spoofed servers won't have that picture. Make sure it's there. Never used that extra layer of validation before, but I sure do now. This took less than an hour to fix and verify.

This is the first virus/hack that hit me personally in about five or six years. We may read about this one soon.

Again, it is undetectable, the spoofed servers were done quite well, and there is no virus or malware installed.

[W3WN]

My Yahoo account got nailed last year. At the time, I thought it was because of a sports-related web site that I'd logged into, that wanted an email address for a user ID (I never use my "real" one for those). The next day, the spam started.

It wasn't a spoof; someone had hacked into my account. Fortunately, I knew within 2 emails sent, and a quick password change took care of it.

Since then, at least twice a week I see emails from hams with Yahoo accounts that have also been hacked into. So there's a hacker out there who's spoofing or targeting hams on Yahoo.

I say that once we catch him, we show him (or her) which human oriface provides an approximate friction fit for a PL-259 attached to about 25 feet of RG-213. And then attach a KW linear to the other end of that coax... and key it...

[WØTKX]

I've noticed the Ham Targeting before. I recently changed my address with the FCC, and have received exiting emails from lovely Russian maidens who are looking to get married. Again. Ain't love grand?

[w0aew]

My yahoo acct underwent the same thing. I closed out of yahoo entirely and will just use my comcast acct. I'm sure yahoo is in tears about my departure.

[W1GUH]

I've noticed the Ham Targeting before. I recently changed my address with the FCC, and have received exiting emails from lovely Russian maidens who are looking to get married. Again. Ain't love grand?

Wow. I never, ever got an exiting email. Must really be fun! But wouldn't you need to have entered before you exited a lovely Russian maiden?

Thanks for the info. Yea, a simple password change took care of it. Surprised nobody's scolded me yet for using a weak password. Ok, I'll do it...


Paul, you're a bad boy! You didn't make you password hack-proof. You must be a real idiot!

Ok...that's taken care of!

BTW...NOT a problem with yahoo - it was my weak password. My other account, with a stronger password, has been fine.

OTOH...some people who know only price, not value, probably think yahoo sucks 'cuz it's free.

[KC2UGV]

Surprised nobody's scolded me yet for using a weak password. Ok, I'll do it...


When it comes to Yahoo!, it doesn't matter if it's a strong password or not. I had a ridiculously long and complex pass word (I use keeppass), and it was brute forced.

[n2ize]

I've noticed the Ham Targeting before. I recently changed my address with the FCC, and have received exiting emails from lovely Russian maidens who are looking to get married. Again. Ain't love grand?

And people fall for that scam.