Friday, my Yahoo Messenger was "hacked". Someone got my password and went in and changed not only my password but my security information.
The odd thing about this was the fact that my scammer actually IM'd me before he signed me out.
It was sort of like the killers in the movie Scream that would call their victims and tell them if they answered the questions correctly they would live, knowing the entire time that there were no right answers and they were going to die no matter what.
Instead of asking me movie trivia, my scammer tried to extort naked webcam pics from me.
He DEMANDED I turn on my webcam and show him my ass or else I'd be sorry.
Being the eloquent gentlewoman that I am, I asked him, "Who the FUCK are you?" because, I do have a LITTLE class and I'd like to know who I was showing my ass to on my webcam.
He didn't like my attitude and told me that because I was such a bitch, I was going to lose my Yahoo ID.
He then showed me my personal information AND my password.
That was a bit of a shock.
I sat there, stunned for a moment, trying to figure out what I should do next.
In the deep recesses of my brain, I knew I needed to access my account and change my password but for the life of me, I couldn't remember how to do that.
I was chatting with a friend on YM at the time so I pasted the conversation to him and said "I can't think! Help me!".
It was too late, though. The evil dude had signed me out and there was nothing I could do to change my password.
It took me a while to figure out how this happened. Another person on my friends list must have been a victim too and that's how *I* got scammed.
I sent the information to Yahoo's security center and hoped they would help me. In the meantime, I emailed everyone I could think of on my list to warn them of the danger I just experienced.
It was such a strange feeling, though. I felt violated. I felt like someone had come into my house and rifled through my things.
What's worse is that I had a conversation with this guy. How many people get to have a relationship with their scammer?
Luckily, Yahoo keeps all original security information on file and I was able to answer all the questions, plus, I was emailing them from my original alternate non-Yahoo email address.
They reset my password on Saturday morning and all was well with the world.
Fortunately, I don't use Yahoo for my email service so I didn't have any person information in my email folders.
All this loser accomplished was wasting my and Yahoo's time for a few hours and also teaching me a valuable lesson about password security. A lesson I already knew and a lesson that I preach to people everyday but now I'll be EXTRA careful and VERY paranoid!
Also, I won't be showing my ass on my webcam for a VERY long time now! Who knew there were such weirdos out there? ;)
