If changing your password does not resolve spam email or IM problems, start by performing our basic steps for combatting spam.

Check your computer for malware:

• Malware installed on your system may cause your account to send spam, even after a password change.
• Malware can be hiding deep within your computer, installed without your knowledge.
• Download and perform a system scan with software specifically designed to find and delete malware.
• If your operating system includes anti-malware software, review your its security settings to make sure that malware protection is both turned on and up-to-date.
• Important! -- Once you have completed a malware scan, change your account password again.

Determining if your Yahoo! Mail address is being forged:

• It's possible that spam isn't actually coming from your Yahoo! account, but from someone has "forged" an email sent from another account by editing email headers.
• Forged email appears to be sent from your email address, but your account is not actually affected.
• Providers can't prevent it -- Unfortunately, email providers cannot prevent their domain names from being forged, but if fraud is identified, appropriate action can be taken.

To check if an email header has been forged:

1. View the full header of an email that appears to have been sent from your account.
2. Obtain the originating IP address in the last "Received" line of the full header.
   Note: This corresponds with the sender's Internet Service Provider (ISP).
3. Conduct an IP lookup through a site like WhoIs.net to determine which ISP provides this person with Internet access.
4. Contact their ISP to request that appropriate action be taken against their customer.

Delete contacts and linked accounts that you don't recognize:

• Read our help articles for instructions:
  • Delete contacts that you do not recognize.
  • Delete linked Mail accounts that you do not control. Change the password on any linked accounts that you do control.
  • Delete linked social networking accounts that you do not recognize.

See if a "Vacation Response" is set up:

• Some spammers set up a "Vacation Response" on accounts to automatically send messages when you receive an email from someone.
• To determine if this is the case, check your Vacation Response settings.

• To learn more about ways to protect your information online, visit the Yahoo! Security Centre.
• For more information about our tools and how you can protect yourself from forged email, visit our Anti-Spam Center.