Yahoo mail confusion

E.T.

I opened my yahoo mail the other day and noticed the address in the browser bar started with http://de.mc290.mail.yahoo.com. I've never noticed the .de prefix before, I'm pretty sure it's never been there actually. I went to the yahoo help page and sent them a copy of the address asking them what was going on.

I got an email back from account-security-uk@cc.yahoo-inc.com asking for my date of birth, zip/postal code, alternate email address listed and challenge question and secret answer. Looking for all of this information sounds dodgy to me, and the email address looks a bit funny too.

I looked in my spam folder the other day and saw there was a spam email from my own address selling Viagra (lovely to know people are getting this from me!) so I know there's a virus or something going on in my account.

Basic question - does anyone know if this is a legit yahoo security address? I've tried googling but getting lots of different explanations, some saying it's ok and some saying it's not.

Cabaal

Sounds dodgy to ask for so much info, did it look like this?

From: "Yahoo! Account Service" <account-security@cc.yahoo-inc.com> Add Mobile Alert

Dear Account User,

This Email is from Yahoo! Customer Care and we are sending it to every
Yahoo! Email User Accounts Owner for safety. we are having congestions
due to the anonymous registration of Yahoo! accounts so we are shutting
down some Yahoo! accounts and your account was among those to be
deleted.We are sending you this email to so that you can verify and let us
know if you still want to use this account. If you are still interested
please confirm your account by filling the space below. Your User
name,Password,Date Of Birth (DOB) and your Country information would be
needed to verify your account.

Due to the congestion in all Yahoo! users and removal of all unused
Yahoo! Accounts, Yahoo! would be shutting down all unused Accounts, You
will have to confirm your E-mail by filling out your Login Information
below after clicking the reply button, or your account will be suspended
within 24 hours for security reasons.

* User name: ..............................

* Password: ................................

* Date of Birth: ............................

* Country Or Territory: ................

After following the instructions in the sheet, your account will not be
interrupted and will continue as normal. Thanks for your attention to
this request. We apologize for any inconveniences.

Warning!!! Account owner that refuses to update his/her account after
two weeks of receiving this warning will lose his or her account
permanently.

E.T.

No, it was a direct reply to the form I'd sent querying the .de prefix in the mail web address. The text I'd inputted in the query form was included at the bottom of the email. This is the body of the email:

"Hello,

Thanks for writing to Yahoo! UK & Ireland Customer Care.

In order for us to assist you in the most efficient manner possible, we
will need you to provide all of the information requested below. Without
the proper verification information, we may be unable to provide further
assistance. Please reply to this email, and provide all of the
following:

- Date of birth (mm-dd-yyyy).

- ZIP or Postal Code.

- The alternate email address that is currently listed.

- Challenge Question and Secret Answer.

Thanks again for writing to Yahoo! UK & Ireland Customer Care

Regards,

Warne
Yahoo! UK & Ireland Customer Care"

It's the fact that they're looking for ALL of the verifications that sounds dodgy to me.

Snowbat

In my experience, Yahoo front line support frequently responds with a random canned reply from their list. Perhaps the agent doesn't understand the question, isn't interested in helping, or your query will take more than 5 seconds to deal with and they're trying to make their daily quota. My advice: reply asking if they *really* need that information and ask your original question again.

Regarding the spam from your own address seen in your spam folder, most spam is sent with a forged From address and they frequently just copy the To address when sending to each recipient. Unless you're seeing spam in your Sent folder, it's likely just that.