Yahoo! Mail Blog, UK and Ireland

Update: The upgrade went OK. Not without a hitch or two, so you may have experienced some strange behaviour this afternoon. If you find anything wrong with the blog, please post a comment on this post, and I’ll investigate.

Hi everyone. In order to patch some security vulnerablities on this blog, I’m going to perform some maintenance work tomorrow (19 Jun). There may be some time where the blog is down due to this upgrade. Fingers crossed it will only be for a short while, but I’ll have a “upgrade in progress” screen to let you know while it’s down.

Wish me luck!!

Happy emailing!
Andrew - Yahoo! Mail Team

Wow!! Here in London the weather has definitely taken a change for the better. The latter half of the bank holiday was very nice and past couple of days have been real corkers.

Now that spring is here, maybe it’s time for some spring cleaning. And what better to clean up or freshen up than your Yahoo! Mail account. One way to do that would be to change your password. What better time to make your account more secure? No better time than the present.

While I’m at it, here are some more tips to help you be more secure when you’re online (and these apply for the whole of the Internet, not just Yahoo!):
1. PINs, Login Details, Banking Passwords, etc:
- Never write them down or share them with anyone.
- Never send them in replies to unsolicited emails claiming to be from your bank, EBay, even Yahoo! for that matter. Yahoo! and most other companies will never send you unsolicited emails asking you for any personal details.

2. Contact Details:
- Change your password immediately in the case that you think maybe someone has stolen your password.
- Make sure we have your current details, particularly your postal code and alternate email address. And make sure you know what they are too. We’ll need you to verify these should you ever have to ask to reset your password. All you need to do is select ‘My Account’ then the ‘Edit’ links next to ‘Member Information’ and ‘Address/Contact Information’ to review and amend your details.

These two things can reduce the risk of your personal information being compromised. Of course you can find more information and more tips to keep you safe online, in our security center.

Happy (safe) emailing!!
Andrew – Yahoo! Mail Team

One of my colleagues in the states was on TV the other day talking about how to be safer and smarter online. Take a look at this video where Yahoo! Web Life Editor Heather Cabot offers up several security tips to keep your online experience and mailbox safer and more secure.

Yes, yes, yes - I know that it sounds very American in tone, but if you get beyond that, Heather talks about some very, very useful stuff in the interview. Oh - and FYI - even though Heather mentions the Addressguard being a feature of Mail Plus, all users with a @yahoo.co.uk account can take advantage of that feature free of charge.

Happy emailing,
Andrew - Yahoo! Mail Team

For this week’s post, I’m enlisting a guest host. I’ve asked Mark, who leads our anti-spam team, to share some news about what he and his team are up to, to help combat the spammers of the world. So without further ado, here’s our resident “Spam Czar”…

Happy Emailing
Andrew - Yahoo! Mail Team

We know you hate receiving spam in your mailbox, and we’re working hard to help. While there may always be bad guys trying to get their messages through to you, at Yahoo! we’re tightening up on our spam controls in ‘08, and in fact we’ve already begun rolling out a significant new defense system (and it’s only the start of February).

One reprehensible tactic spammers use is hijacking thousands of innocent home computers and forcing them to send out spam messages in the background, often without the owners even knowing! Collectively, these “zombie” computers spew out millions of spam messages a day, and that’s something that has to stop.

Starting today, we will be taking the bold move of rejecting mail from these zombie computers, using information from a number of third-party companies and ISPs to help in the identification. When these unauthorized computers attempt a connection to our back-end mail servers, they’ll be politely informed that their unsolicited mail is not welcome at Yahoo!. (This change is on the back-end only; users connecting through the Classic or All-New Yahoo! Mail web interfaces will not be blocked by this change.)

For example, consumers with a dynamic IP address will no longer be able to send mail directly to Yahoo! servers (machines with geeky, technical names like “a.mx.mail.yahoo.com”), and must instead use their ISP’s designated mail gateway. Again, users interacting through the web interface or the Yahoo! Mail POP/SMTP/IMAP services will *not* be affected by this change; aside from the spammers, this change will only impact people running a secret, unauthorized mail server in their basement.

It’s just one of the many steps we’re planning in the upcoming weeks and months to continue to improve your Yahoo! Mail experience, and we’ll be checking in here periodically on the YMail Blog to keep you up-to-date with further developments.

One reminder: If you do receive a spam message in your inbox — or an important message ends up in your spam folder — please help us out by clicking the “This is Spam” or “This is Not Spam” button on it. Clicking these buttons immediately sends a series of notifications to our SpamGuard systems and personnel so that we can correct the problem, and is the best indicator of how well we’re doing in our mission to ensure you receive all of the mail you want and none that you don’t.

Wishing you a Happy New Year from Yahoo! and SpamGuard,

Mark R.
“Spam Czar”
Yahoo! Mail

P.S. Note for geeks and system administrators: In the rare case that you do feel we’ve made an incorrect classification of your mail, please pay close attention to any SMTP reply code our servers send back to you, as these will contain essential troubleshooting information and instructions on how to report a problem. Information for legitimate bulk mailers can always be found at http://postmaster.yahoo.com.

Let’s face it, spammers and phishers are a right pain. And for those of you looking to educate yourselves and to find ways to stay ahead of the spammers and scammers, I’ve got some good news for you. We’ve just launched a new Yahoo Mail Security site (uk.antispam.yahoo.com).

In it, you’ll find great tips on dealing with spammers, viruses and phishing. And like I’ve told you before, there is no Yahoo! Lottery and you will not win a boatload of cash from an unsolicited email. But with our new security center you can win the fight against spam.

Happy emailing,
Andrew – Yahoo! Mail Team

We regret to inform you that you did not win the Yahoo! lottery. Because there is no Yahoo! lottery. Please don’t send us money to claim your “winnings.”

Like other highly-visible brands, ours is a tempting one for fraudsters to hitch their wagons to. You probably have received an email or maybe even a text message on your mobile notifying you of a fabulous windfall you’ve won in a Yahoo! lottery. It usually tells you to send money or your account details. Don’t fall for it!!!!

We will never send you an email about a lottery or contest you never entered. And even though the email might look like it’s from Yahoo!, it’s not. Anyone with a Yahoo! account has a Yahoo! email address. These are unsolicited emails that should be ignored and deleted. They are usually poorly written with lots of grammatical and spelling mistakes. For example, take a look at this excerpt from the one of the most recent scams I’ve seen:

“So we appeal to you to have a bite patients to enable our Account Department carryout their works more effectively for smooth and sucessful tansfer of your winning prize $ 0ne million us dollars without any delay…”

And as more folks are getting wise to the scams, the scammers are getting more and more creative. They are employing more tricks like using pictures of the Yahoo! campus and even our logo (they get these from pictures that are available to anyone online).

As ridiculous as some of these cons may seem, we take them very seriously. Our Yahoo! Mail Abuse team looks into all reports of these scams and takes appropriate action. Plus, we are currently evaluating new filtering technology that may be effective in catching scams like this.

In the meantime, if you receive a message claiming to be from Yahoo! notifying you of a cash prize, please let us know! Just forward the message to mail-spoof@cc.yahoo-inc.com. Include the full email header (info on how to do that is here). The full header shows us the route the email took to get to your Inbox and helps us track down the culprits.

Our team really hates these scams — maybe even more than you. So help us knock them out before they hit someone else’s inbox.

Happy emailing!
Andrew – Yahoo Mail Team

I’m not sure if you’ve read about this but I wanted to let you in on a not-so-well kept secret. In fact, you should pass this on to all your friends that don’t have a Yahoo! email address. Yahoo!, along with eBay and PayPal, announced recently that we’ll all be collaborating to protect you against fraudulent emails and phishing attacks. Read the full press release here.

Why is that good news for us Yahoo! Mail users?
Now that eBay and Paypal are confidently using DomainKeys we will begin taking strong action against fraudulent, spoofed messages. This is great news for those of us with eBay and Paypal accounts. And this should encourage other online companies to sign up for authentication and DomainKeys/DKIM, making e-mail safer for everyone.

Our corporate blog has more info. You can read it here.

Happy emailing.
Andrew – Yahoo! Mail Beta Team

No, we’re not talking about the wonderful Monty Python sketch so lovingly put to song. Spam in your inbox is a nuisance and sometimes even downright infuriating. But dealing with Spam has just got a whole lot easier in the new Yahoo! Mail Beta.

Never open another spam message again:
The all-new Yahoo! Mail lets you zap spam messages without even having to open them. One click and it’s off to the spam folder for those unsolicited emails. Just highlight an email (or multiple emails using the checkboxes), then point your mouse to the button labeled “Spam” at the top of your inbox, then click that button and the message(s) is moved to your spam folder (not only that, but you’ve just reported that email address as spam and all future messages from that address will go directly to your spam folder).

Delete it all with one click:
Our enhanced SpamGuard automatically detects and directs spam into your Spam folder. With SpamGuard, your inbox won’t get bogged down with all those spam emails. And if you want to delete all spam messages with one click of the mouse, just click that “Empty” link next to the Spam folder. You never even have to open it to delete it.

What else can I do?
With the new Yahoo! Mail Beta, you’ve got options. Not only are we taking spam seriously here, but we also want to give you the tools to manage spam effectively and correctly. See that “Options” link hanging out in the top right corner? Click it and then click Mail Options.

In the left column, click the link called “Spam”. From here you can tell SpamGuard what to do with the unwanted mail that you get. You can choose how often to empty the Spam folder, and set up blocked email addresses.

What’s the bottom line?
When it comes to Spam, with the new Yahoo! Mail Beta, you’re in control. With our SpamGuard filter and greater consumer awareness you’re more protected from Spam than ever. Of course if you want to order it in a restaurant, that’s your choice!

Happy Emailing!
Andrew - Yahoo! Mail Team