Watch out for Yahoo email scam

A conversation with my sister Kathy a few minutes ago revealed a sinister email scam involving Yahoo. Those of you who have Yahoo email listen up: First a very authentic email comes from what appears to be Yahoo. It warns you that there is a scam going around, and it asks for your user name name and password. I've received the email before, and I promptly deleted it (the best thing to do). My sister gave them the wrong password, but Gary, a friend of hers, took the email seriously and did as they requested, foolish, foolish man!

Here's what happened next: Kathy got a frantic email which appeared to be from Gary (though it did come from another email address --- a red flag!). In this email, he said he was in Great Britain and needed her to send him money.

Since she had just been to his Christmas party, and he mentioned nothing about a trip to Europe, she called him. Nope, he wasn't in Europe -- and he confessed that he HAD "updated" his user name and password with Yahoo. Voila! Busted!

Now, this scammer has all Gary's entire list of email friends to send messages to.

The lesson -- Never give out your user name and password to ANYONE -- even if you think you know who they are! My sister figured that Yahoo already HAD her user name, so why would they have to ask her??? Right!

You cannot believe how realistic these documents and emails are! I wrote some back of an email scam that I got from what appeared to be the Social Security Administration. I didn't even click on the attachment, because I knew that neither the IRS nor the Social Security Administration will ever send you an email asking for anything!

Last week, our school superintendent told me to watch out for a Java update which is actually a virus! (ARG!!! I think I may have done that on my mini!!)

I also recently received an official-looking email from a Parcel Post Organization of some kind, telling me to click on an attachment and copy a claim form to get my "parcel." The sneaky thing about this scam is that so many people are mailing parcels here at Christmas time, and they might be inclined to do that --- however, I do NOT trust attachments! They can infect your computer with a virus and you can have all sorts of problems! If you get this notice, delete it!

I even go to my trash icon on the desktop and delete it from there, too! (Paranoid, aren't I?)

Isn't it sad that this time of year brings out the worst in some people?

If you know of a scam - whether on the computer, or at your doorstep, or through the mail, please mention it here. The more the word gets out, the better protected we are! The Statesman has foiled at least one major scam through this website, when someone told about the "Travelers" group from Texas, who were working in this region. The information was forwarded on to the Stoddard County Sheriff, and it helped solve the case!

From the sunny streets of downtown Advance, this is your cautious rural reporter Madeline, wishing you all a SAFE Christmas!)