A particularly effective phishing scam has targeted Yahoo! Messenger this week. The reason it is so successful is because the phishing scam involves the Yahoo! Messenger user being sent an IM message which appears to come from someone on the user’s Yahoo! Messenger buddy list. Ouch.

The message suggests that the user log in to a Yahoo! Web site, which of course isn’t a Yahoo! Web site at all, but looks just like one. Once the user logs in to the fake Yahoo! Web site, the phisher has captured the user’s login details. With those details, they can access the user’s Yahoo! account, including all of their personal details and the details of all of their contacts.

Said a Yahoo! spokesperson, “Hackers have…

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