Welcome to the forum mmpcsnet 
Did you also try in safe mode?

Has she contacted yahoo about this by some chance.  Funny you should bring this topic up as I had a similar situation today with one of our customers.  I will tell you the same thing I told her.  First of all....contact yahoo, the one contact number I have for them is (408) 349-1572.  Second, stop using yahoo messenger for the moment.....at least until she can get a grasp as to whats happening.

The "hacker" has somehow gleened her login information, whether it was through keystoke logging, phishing or other....and there is some concern that other personal information of hers is at risk.

If she does any online banking or bill paying she needs to contact those companies by phone right away and give them a new email address and don't forget to change all logins and passwords.

To be safe just in case it's a bug on her pc that is quietly passing this information on to her "hacker" foe, wipe the pc...I mean entirely, reformat and reinstall a clean O/S.  Don't bother with removal tools as they can be easily defeated before they ever get started.

Next and most important.  If she even thinks for a second that her personal information has been compromised tell her to contact Trans Union, Equifax and Experian and place at minimum a temporary Fraud Alert on her credit reports.  This will last a minimum of 3 months and will give her time to determine how bad the breach really is.  If need be the alert can be extended to 7 years which will give her plenty of protection.  By law any credit grantor must make contact with her first before granting any credit.  This will also protect her if damage is already in progress as her existing creditors will be put on immediate notice to look for things that just don't seem right and protect her (and themselves) accordingly.

She needs to contact her local law enforcement and at least file a preliminary report.  If it turns out that she is also a victim of identity theft the groundwork will be in place to properly investigate the matter and her creditors will work directly with the investigating officer.

This is a very scary situation and the potential damages are not only real but can be devastating.  Immediate action is the only course that should be taken and don't skip any of the steps.  Time is of the essence.....even one day can wipe a person out financially for a very long time.

Good Luck!

Minimizing the potential damage done is not something that should be suggested.  Anytime a person's login information to any system regardless if its yahoo, sleezebay,  bank or other you should always take the steps I posted previously.

Having been an identity theft victim twice, once courtesy of a bank and the other courtesy of a former roommate I speak from experience.

The damage happens in hours and can take years to resolve and in many cases your financial condition is never the same.  In my case it's been two years since the last occurance and I am still dealing with the issues. 

Most corporate security departments (ie: banks, utilities, credit cards) opt to take the safe approach in dealing with these matters.  Whether or not it can be proven that her personal information has been stolen is irrelevant at this point, she still needs to take adequate precautions to protect herself.

These steps cost nothing and can save everything if the worst happens and "doubting" that her personal information has been stolen and not doing anything is not very smart.

Since WE do not know what has actually happened (nor the extent of the damage) to this persons friend the most appropriate reponse to this person is to suggest that they take any and all precautions at their disposal. 

Remember, many people will take your advice verbatim under the assumption that you are admin and should know exactly what you are talking about and that you can somehow, through their minimal description of the issue gleen everything there is to know about their problem.  In this case any assumption would be very dangerous and costly to the victim.

We assume that her yahoo account is her only issue but there may be unknowns here that were not communicated.  All things considered the posters friend should take any and all precautions until she gets a handle on things.  Prepare for the worst, hope for the best...

Yes, i agree with all three of you, i mean, how couldn't i, you practically wrote books on it lol 

but yea, umm...use www.meebo.com

yahoo messenger is almost as insecure as Windows ME lol  ;)

Also if i was you i'd stop using yahoo messenger, and use a 3rd part client like YahElite. http://www.yahelite.org/

haha yeah.. so much for security.. the only one that is encrypted that I know of, by default, is g-talk beta by Google. If you try to sniff the packets all you get is a bunch of number.. unlike aim where you can see the conversation..

Download SIMP, and have anyone you want to have a secure IM convo with download  SIMP exchange encryption keys, and not even the networks that carry the convo's will no what you are saying.


http://www.secway.fr/us/products/simplite_msn/home.php