Yahoo Messenger and Key Loggers

Heads up, folks. A daughter of a friend of mine lost control over her email to some email hijacker. The hijacker found out about her email password, logged into her account, and changed her password.

She was tricked into giving her password to the hijacker.

Someone sent her a clickable link via Yahoo Messenger.

The link said that she could check people who are hiding from Yahoo Messenger by simply visiting the site mentioned in the link.

She clicked on the link, and a "logger" got installed in her computer. The "logger" keeps track of what you type and sends that information to the hijacker.

That's how the hijacker found out about her email account password.

(And who knows what else the hijacker now knows about -- other passwords, credit card numbers, other login data?)

So be careful with Yahoo Messenger and other hard-to-resist clickable links. I personally don't use YM anymore. Who wants to be reachable every second, right?
[ First posted on 03/17/2005 by Manuel Viloria ]