August « 2008 « Yahoo! Mail Blog

Archive for August, 2008

Yahoo! Lottery: What’s wrong with this picture? (a lot)

Thursday, August 28th, 2008

When it comes to spotting phishing emails I feel that it’s a really easy thing to do. But then I think about the number of messages I get from users asking about our “lottery” and I am reminded that not everyone has had the same degree of experience. Having worked at PayPal, eBay, and now Yahoo!, I have a bit of a PhD in phishing, and would like to spread some knowledge.

If you have been reading for a while you may remember way back in May when I offered up a breakdown of some recent Yahoo! Lottery and PayPal scams that were floating around. As you can imagine these scammers are persistent and new styles are always popping up. Below is a recent attempt at a lottery scam that I found particularly bad.

While phishing messages are known for their bad grammar and spelling, this one really sinks to new lows. I’ve marked up many of the mistakes in red, but I’m sure there are a lot more. Anyway, the first things you might notice are that “I D” and “PRICE” are misspellings (they are going for ID and prize). I guess that might slip by but then you can easily see that the “YAHOO INCORPORATED” email address is in fact from @walla.com.

Next we can proceed to the stuff that makes our brand folks all twitchy…the inconsistencies. There must be a dozen references to Yahoo! in this message, yet they never spell it the same way two times in a row. Some have the “!” at the end, others don’t. Some are ALL CAPS, others are not. In fact the whole message bounces back and forth between different font styles.

You’ve also got references to the All-New Yahoo Mail Beta (hasn’t been beta or for a year), and the Yahoo Male Classic (I guess it’s for guys only).

Then of course we have perhaps the most insulting gesture from this scammer. He wants you to claim your Yahoo! “Price” by contacting him at a gmail address?!?!?!

As you move further down the message there are of course more references to “Price” (instead of prize) with the requisite request for personal information.

All in all this message has all of the signs, including perhaps the biggest warning sign of all…if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is.

So if Yahoo!, PayPal, eBay, your bank, or pretty much any site asks you for a bunch of personal information in an email you need to remember a few things.

Most major sites know better than to ask that of their customers.
If a site is warning you that your account is going to be shut down you should try to contact the appropriate customer care team directly.
When contacting the site to ask be sure to use your normal methods, not the links within a suspicious email.

Posted in All-New Mail, Anti-Spam, Classic Mail, General, Security, Tips & Tutorials | 51 Comments »

Order has been restored to the YMail blog!

Monday, August 25th, 2008

Guess who’s back … back again! I have indeed returned from my recent travels abroad, and though I am now quite sunburned (and considerably lighter in the wallet) I’m pleased to see that the blog is right where I left it. It’s also nice to see (and hear) the response from some of the user submitted pictures, so please feel free to send me pics anytime. I’m still getting through email and recent comments, but should be all caught up very soon.

But enough with the pleasantries, and onto the business at hand. As I’ve said before, building “it” isn’t enough … if you want them to “come” you need to also let them know where it is (except of course if building a baseball field in Iowa). So I recently got some of my friends to put the blog into the rotation with other educational messaging within Classic and All-New Mail. Voila, readership is ticking up. But that also means there are likely a lot of folks who are visiting for the first time, so I want to make sure they know what’s up and ask you all to bookmark, subscribe, or even make this your homepage.

Repeated apologies to those experienced readers who have already seen this stuff, but fear not I will try to find you guys some breaking news next week. On that note I’m going to leverage some content from past blog posts…

Whether you are looking for the:

latest news about Yahoo! Mail,
tips from users, or from Yahoo! staff,
links to the latest tutorials,
screencast demonstrations,
a peek behind the scenes here at Yahoo!,

… or what have you, this is where you can go to find it. You can also subscribe to the RSS Feed, or even better you can add it to MyYahoo by clicking and you can see updates there! I look forward to seeing you back here in the future.

Posted in General, Tips & Tutorials | 26 Comments »

Yahoo! Mail as your default mail

Friday, August 22nd, 2008

I’ve been asked before about how to set Yahoo Mail as your default email. Up until now, the only way that I knew, was to download and install the complete Yahoo! Messenger client, and install the Yahoo! Extras that come along with it. But I’m happy to tell you that, since Firefox 3 was released recently, there’s a new and much easier way to make Yahoo! Mail be the default mail when you see those clickable email addresses.

Here’s how to set up Yahoo! Mail to be your default email application using Firefox 3:

Download and install Firefox 3
After installation and when you have Firefox 3 up and running, click Tools, then Options
In the options window that pops up, click the Applications Tab
In the box labeled “Search” type Mail
In the “Action” drop down box, select “Use Yahoo Mail”
Finally, click “OK”

Here’s a little slide show that shows you all the steps:

That’s all there is to it. The next time you click on an email address link (also know as a mailto: link) when using Firefox 3, it will take you right to the compose window in Yahoo Mail.

Happy emailing,
Andrew – Yahoo! Mail Team

Posted in Yahoo! Mail UK | 18 Comments »

Where are the YMailers – Round 3

Thursday, August 21st, 2008

Here’s my last post from this round of user submitted photos. The overall response was awesome and I’d like to thank everyone who submitted … but if you didn’t send anything in by now that doesn’t mean you still can’t. I’m extending an open invitation to all users to send in any interesting YMail pictures you have. I’ll try to get posts up as often as I can, and anyone who has a picture that makes it on the blog can expect a reward!

Georgia, hailing originally from Northern California, sent in some pictures from one of the lodges in Brazil that she managed to check her Yahoo! Mail at.

Next we have E_Chin, who took many pictures from a recent European trip. Here’s what he had to say. “In all of these cities i used Yahoo! mail as my main means of communicating with my friends back home, as well as my other friends traveling abroad in other countries. Y! mail was a great way to keep in touch, both with email and the integration of SMS into Y! mail.”

I’ll be back at my usual blogging post very soon, and will be back beating the bushes for the latest scoop on what’s going on with Yahoo! Mail.

Posted in All-New Mail, Classic Mail, General | 16 Comments »

Where are the YMailers – Round 2

Tuesday, August 19th, 2008

For Round 2 of our user submitted “YMailing” images we have a couple of pics that come to us all the way from India.

Abhilash tells me that he utilizes GPRS (not sure if that’s strictly through a mobile device or if he tethers it to his laptop as a modem…but either way is good) to check his YMail everywhere he goes.

…and here he is again, this time clearly mocking me with the makings of a VERY full head of hair (were you wondering why I’m wearing a hat in my pic?).

Love the bird’s eye view!

Posted in All-New Mail, Classic Mail, General | 11 Comments »

Where are the YMailers – Round 1

Thursday, August 14th, 2008

As promised, you will not be lacking in blog posts just because I am traveling. Comment responses…now that’s another story. I’ll get cracking on those as soon as I return.

In the meantime, it’s time for user submitted pictures! You may recall that a few weeks back I was inspired by the Where The Hell Is Matt video, and asked you all to send in creative examples of some of the places that you have found yourself using your Yahoo! Mail. One of my friends sent in a pic of herself checking via wireless out in front of some Taiwanese monuments.

Over the next week I’ll be posting some of the selections from those submissions. Some captured themselves within the image, others just captured a lovely view, but big thanks to everyone who made the effort. The team really enjoyed it.

Here we have Chrystal, seated in a place she “frequents often on campus” (the Cal Poly San Luis Obispo University Union), while checking her Yahoo! Mail.

Another of the submissions comes all the way from Manila, where Christian offered a sample of the view he enjoys while checking his email wirelessly on his balcony.

Stay tuned to the blog over the next week. Rounds 2 and 3 will be on the way.

Posted in All-New Mail, Classic Mail, General | 27 Comments »

Check out the new Mail Overview site!

Tuesday, August 12th, 2008

If you’ve ever wanted a place to go to get a quick snapshot of everything about Yahoo! Mail, I have some splendid news for you. We have just rolled out an all new Product Overview site (overview.mail.yahoo.com) that should (in theory) contain anything and everything you wanted to know about the features and functions of Yahoo! Mail, but didn’t know where to ask. Here comes the preview, but make sure you read to the end for some additional news about the blog.

As you can see there is an easy to follow navigation bar at the top of every page. You can drill down within the Products tab to get detailed information about Classic or All-New Mail, and if you’ve ever wanted to know the differences, there is an option for that too. You get side by side feature comparison of both versions, with some details about Plus features too.

Each main product page also has tab choices that let you see not only the current features, but also a summary list of all of the most recent changes.

But maybe you don’t want just a summary list of the changes. If that’s the case you needn’t fret because there is another option in the main navigation bar that lets you review detailed descriptions of What’s New with Yahoo! Mail.

Maybe you want to know more about integrated chat or SMS within the All-New Mail. Perhaps you were living under a rock and never heard that we offer unlimited storage for all users. No matter your flavor, you can find the latest major product breakdowns under that tab.

Under the enhancements tab you can find a very detailed description of all of the features of Yahoo! Mail Plus, accompanied by one of my favorite Liam incarnations…Super Liam!

And I would be remiss if I didn’t mention the coolest aspect of the overview site…the giant link to this blog! Sure you are already here now, but I’m all for anything that makes it easier for you to get back, as well as anything that could bring some new readers.

If you happen to be someone who found your way here for the first time thanks to that link, please do subscribe to the RSS feed and come back again. Here you will find breaking news about both versions of Yahoo! Mail, product demos, screencasts, and news about bugs that may be impacting your Mail experience, all with a healthy dose of lighthearted humor (except on the bug posts, of course).

There’s lots of stuff to check out on the Overview site, so please have a look around. Also, I want to let you all know (or at least the folks who read all the way to the end of my posts) that I’m going to be out of the office for the next week, so be patient if you don’t see any comment responses from me for a few days.

I’ve queued up some great posts with the pics users submitted of the places they use Yahoo! Mail, and they will be going up while I’m gone. Enjoy, and I’ll be back soon!

Posted in All-New Mail, Classic Mail, General, New Stuff, Tips & Tutorials | 68 Comments »

Transcript from the Anti-Spam Workshop with Mark

Wednesday, August 6th, 2008

Once again we’d like to thank everyone who submitted questions, and who stopped by to participate, during last week’s Anti-Spam Workshop with Mark (transcript here). We received a lot of great questions, and Mark enjoyed the opportunity to answer questions, as well as hear directly from the users. One of the more interesting questions lead to a stat that Mark had never shared with me … and totally blew me away.

dlippman: Why don’t emails with the word “Lottery” and a few other Spam characteristics automatically go into my Spam folder?

Mark: I really wish we could! Catching a specific word is really hard. On the one hand, there are the risks that we’ll catch something legitimate — “Campus housing lottery this Friday” — which is what we call a “false positive.” (A “false positive” is any time our filters mistakenly mark something as spam when it isn’t)

On the other hand, if we build a filter for one specific word, there are often about a bazillion other ways the bad guys can spell it and still get their point across. Did you know there were 600,426,974,379,824,381,952 ways to spell \/!@g.r.a? (check out http://cockeyed.com/lessons/viagra/viagra.html)

I actually had to look up what that number translates to (turns out it’s a quintillion) and who would have thought that the “little blue miracle” could be re-written that many ways.

Check out the complete transcript from the Workshop here. We will be doing more of these Workshops over the next few months, so if you have any themes you would like to recommend please feel free to suggest them (comments or email).

Ryan Knight
Community Manager
Yahoo! Mail

Posted in All-New Mail, Anti-Spam, Classic Mail, Featured, General, Security, Tips & Tutorials | 43 Comments »

Keep me signed into Yahoo! Mail

Tuesday, August 5th, 2008

I get some comments on this blog, now and again, saying that “I have to sign in every time I want to get to my mail, even though I’ve checked the box…” It’s not many of you, but enough that I thought I would take this opportunity to see if I can offer some suggestions on how to keep yourself signed into Yahoo! Mail for up to 2 weeks.

So if it’s your wish to remain logged into Yahoo! Mail for two weeks, but are having difficulty doing so, I’ve created a help page for you in the Yahoo Mail Help pages. You can read the detailed instructions here: http://help.yahoo.com/l/uk/yahoo/mail/classic/account/account-20.html

Some of the instructions are a bit technical, so if you’re not technically inclined you might want to get your resident computer nerd to give you a hand. Here is the abriged version:

Check the box “Keep me signed in” on the login page of Yahoo! Mail.
Make sure you are using the correct URL/web address to access Yahoo! Mail.
Check your account settings to make sure that you have your account set to keep you logged in for 2 weeks.
Make sure that you have your Internet browser set to accept “cookies” from Yahoo.
Make sure that your anti-virus/firewall software isn’t blocking or deleting you Yahoo! cookies.

After confirming those five steps you should now be kept logged in for 2 weeks at a time. Remember – DO NOT do this if you use a computer in an Internet Café, or you share your computer with someone else. Finally, I know this is a pretty technical post, so I apologize if some of the instructions above seem fairly complicated.

Happy emailing.
Andrew – Yahoo! Mail Team

Posted in Yahoo! Mail UK | 27 Comments »

Where’s Matt? He’s with Liam (and me, and Jerry, and more)!

Monday, August 4th, 2008

Believe it or not this was a total coincidence. Shorty after I posted about having seen the Where the Hell is Matt? video (and thus requesting your photo submissions showcasing where you use Yahoo! Mail) we were informed by the Yodel editor that Matt was going to make a speaking appearance at our main campus.

What many on campus DIDN’T know was that when he wasn’t spending that hour speaking he was actually being dragged all over campus to shoot scenes with various Yahoos. If you look really closely at the Mail team clip (0:55, pause if you need to) you will see a contemplative Liam in the center, with Matt just to the left and me wearing a hat just a little further to the left. If you look closely you can also see Mark, the anti-spam Czar.

The video is over on Yodel, so be sure to check it out!

http://ymailupdates.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2008/08/MattVid.jpg