# Worm in Yahoo Mail? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [December 20, 2012, 1:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worm-in-yahoo-mail/644589 "2012-12-20T01:20:00Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![11811](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/1/9d8465/32.png) [@11811](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/11811)\ **Post date:** [December 20, 2012, 1:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worm-in-yahoo-mail/644589/1 "2012-12-20T01:20:00Z")
How do I interrupt a worm in my yahoo mail? My account is sending out messages to everyone in my address list. The message says, “Hi, what do you think of this?” followed by a link purported to be a msnbc link to jobs. It was sent to me from a friend’s account, and I had no reason to suspect it was bad. ---
**Author:** ![Telemark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/telemark/32/372_2.png) [@Telemark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Telemark)\ **Post date:** [December 20, 2012, 3:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worm-in-yahoo-mail/644589/2 "2012-12-20T03:22:37Z")
Do the mail messages show up in your “Sent” folder? If so, change your password. Nothing should be executing out of your account without being able to log in. If not, it could be someone else’s compromised machine spoofing mail using your return address. ---
**Author:** ![11811](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/1/9d8465/32.png) [@11811](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/11811)\ **Post date:** [December 20, 2012, 3:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worm-in-yahoo-mail/644589/3 "2012-12-20T03:23:47Z")
Thank you ---
**Author:** ![Jas09](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/d07c76/32.png) [@Jas09](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jas09)\ **Post date:** [December 20, 2012, 3:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worm-in-yahoo-mail/644589/4 "2012-12-20T03:52:20Z")
My mother had the same one a few weeks ago. It basically just hijacks your current session - so if you logout you’re actually OK. However, changing your password is also a good idea in these circumstances. The good news is other than the spam it doesn’t actually DO anything. ---
**Author:** ![April\_R](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/3da27b/32.png) [@April\_R](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/April_R)\ **Post date:** [December 20, 2012, 3:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worm-in-yahoo-mail/644589/5 "2012-12-20T03:55:42Z")
I had one purporting to be from Fedex and when I click on the link my anti-virus program pegged it as a Trojan. Thank goodness, because I was stupid enough to click on the link ☹ ---
**Author:** ![Jordonak](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/85f322/32.png) [@Jordonak](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jordonak)\ **Post date:** [December 20, 2012, 11:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worm-in-yahoo-mail/644589/6 "2012-12-20T11:34:13Z")
The question is how it got there, you should try to change the MTA or update it, or mark the browser (and its update). ---
**Author:** ![Kent\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kent_clark/32/105_2.png) [@Kent\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kent_Clark)\ **Post date:** [December 20, 2012, 9:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worm-in-yahoo-mail/644589/7 "2012-12-20T21:28:15Z")
What do you know, I got exactly the same thing in my Yahoo email on Tuesday. Yahoo solved the problem by shutting my account down for 24 hours.☹ Virus scans showed nothing. In addition to changing your password, look in your mail settings for Spam. Look in your blocked addresses and see if your own address is in there. Delete it and then (hopefully) life will get back to normal.