1 post tagged “yahoo”
About 5 years ago, I signed up for AT&T/Yahoo DSL service. At the time, I already had a Yahoo email account. During the registration process, I could merge the Yahoo account with my new AT&T, thus preserving my inbox and my contact list.
I used the AT&T account exclusively and forgot about the Yahoo mail account.
Flash forward to July 2009 when we moved to a new house. At the time, I needed to reset my account password to a more secure one. As a tech. guy, I recognized the need to upgrade my password but got lazy over time and had experienced no ill effects of having the weak password. But it was time to change it.
Since then, I have been lock
ed out of my account 3 times -- the most recent occurrence most being 3 days ago. Each time, I reset my password with anot
her secure one. Tier 1 Tech. Support simply told me to reset the password and assured me it would not happen again. But each time, it did.
After 2 and 1/2 hours on the phone (and 3 disconnections) later, a Tier 2 Tech. Support guy told me of a security weakness in the system involving Yahoo Mail accounts merged with AT&T Yahoo mail accounts. While changing your AT&T password requires knowing the current password and answering a security question, resetting the Yahoo account's password does NOT involve a security question. But there is bigger problem. With merged accounts, resetting the Yahoo account also resets the AT&T account! And that is where my personal Hell began. Somehow, this happened 4 times in as many months.
The solution:
- Reset the passwords of the merged accounts
- UNMERGE the accounts
- Reset BOTH Yahoo and AT&T password individually
- CHANGE YOUR SECURITY QUESTION
- UPDATE (9/12/09): Change your PASSCODE (Yes, you have one)
The result is TWO unlinked email accounts -- An AT&T accounts with and EMPTY inbox and CONTACTS LIST and a Yahoo mail account with all your mail, folders and contact list intact. You will then need to export your contacts from your Yahoo account and import them into your AT&T account. I didn't really want to go through the hassle of moving all my mail over to the AT&T account and decided it wasn't worth it.
According the the Tier 2 Tech, AT&T will no longer allow users to merge accounts. Gee, I wonder why! If you have merged your Yahoo and AT&T email accounts, you may wish to UNMERGE them. It's a hassle but it beats getting locked out of Yahoo mail and Yahoo IM and having to reset your modem's password everytime someone manages to reset your password.
