This article describes how to safeguard your Yahoo! Account if you:

• Are concerned about your accounts safety
• Suspect someone else may have access to your account
• Believe your account was compromised, hacked, tampered with
• Find out spam emails were received by all your contacts
• Would like to create a strong password for your account
• Are concerned that someone is sending email from your account, e.g., you notice suspicious emails being sent from your account without your consent.

If you are concerned about safeguarding the privacy and security of your Yahoo! account, please refer to the following guidelines:

• Change your password and security questions regularly -- There is no better way to protect your account from being compromised than to change your password regularly. It is best if you change them to something completely different to the ones you had previously. Creating a secure, strong password will always minimize the ability of an account to be hacked. If at any time you become concerned about the security of your password, you can always change it online.
• Always sign out when you are finished using your account -- This is especially important if you use a public or shared computer. To sign out of your account, select Sign Out located at the top of the page. (Note: If you have selected the Remember my ID on this computer box, signing out will disable that option.) You may also want to completely close the browser you have been using.
• Choose your password wisely -- Choose a Yahoo! password which you will remember, but which cannot be easily guessed, even by those who know you. It is very important to keep your password private at all times. Use a complex password that is a mixture of upper and lowercase letters, numbers, and symbols.
• Clear your browser's cache and cookies -- Doing this will remove the possibility that another user on the same computer could use the browser's "Back" button or "History" function to view any of the contents of your account. Clearing your cookies will reduce the chance you can be compromised through a malicious cookie.
  Note: The Yahoo! Sign-in Seal is stored in your browsers cookies. If you clear your cache and cookies, you will need to create a new Sign-in Seal.
• Choose your Security Questions and Secret Answers wisely -- If you gave us a Security Question and Secret Answer during registration, be sure that you have chosen a Secret Answer that you will be able to remember, but will also be difficult for others to guess. Remember, it's possible for anyone who knows your Yahoo! ID, birthday, and zip/postal code to see what your Security Question is. You can always change your security questions if you have access to your account. 
• Account Activity -- Periodically check the account activity on your account to see the locations from which it has been accessed.
• Strange or Unknown Links -- Do not click on unknown links sent to through messaging applications such as Mail and Messenger.

Note: Your Yahoo! ID and password are your own confidential information. No Yahoo! employee will ever ask you for your password in an unsolicited phone call or email message. If you are ever asked for your password in an unsolicited manner or by someone you do not believe to be a representative of Yahoo!, please do not share your password with them.

For additional information on ways to protect your information online, please visit the Yahoo! Security Center.

We strongly recommend you take this opportunity to add an alternate email address and/or mobile number to your account. It will help you recover you password in the future at times when you may not be able to access your account and cannot remember you secret questions.