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Hotmail Password Scam Spreads to Gmail, AOL Mail, Yahoo!

by Warren Riddle on October 6, 2009 at 04:05 PM


Yesterday, reports emerged that 10,000 Hotmail account addresses and passwords had been posted to the site PasteBin.com. Today, BBC News revealed that it has discovered another incriminating list containing log-in information for 20,000 additional e-mail addresses. The new batch, though, not only includes information from compromised Hotmail accounts, but also from Gmail, Yahoo!, AOL, and several other major e-mail providers.

Some of the accounts are dormant and unused, making them easy marks for scammers, but the BBC says that it has confirmed the authenticity of many of the addresses. A Google spokesperson said the lists were the fruits of an "industry-wide phishing scheme," and that the passwords for all of the compromised Gmail accounts have been forcibly reset.

Google has asserted that the occurrence was not the result of security breaches, but that all information was gleaned through phishing expeditions. This fully demonstrates the importance of being able to recognize, and avoid, increasingly deceptive and diverse phishing techniques. There are numerous, simple methods that can help you effectively thwart phishing scams (like never clicking on unknown links), but the first, most basic, and perhaps the most important, is to reset and fortify your passwords. [From: BBC News]

Tags: AOL mail, AolMail, e-mail phishing scam, E-mailPhishingScam, Gmail, Hotmail, password protection, PasswordProtection, phishing, safety, security, top, yahoo mail, YahooMail

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