Identity Thieves Like Yahoo’s Email
The email service provider of choice for identity theft is, according to a report from checkmyfile.com, Yahoo!… a dubious honor if there ever was one. 82% of these attempts are done so using a Yahoo email account. Furthermore, people who use Internet email accounts when shopping online are more likely to be blacklisted as identity thieves.
The study also found Internet businesses are more likely to issue refunds to shoppers using these email accounts because the charges will not recognized by the actual card carrier. This means quite a few fraudulent credit charge attempts are done by identity thieves using and email address from one of these popular services.
What is it about Yahoo Mail that makes it so attractive to identity thieves? It has to do with these the perception of these accounts being reliable and therefore the user is trustworthy (although, reports like this may change that perception). The report reveals it’s also harder to trace the member who signed up for the account, making these email services an absolute haven for identity thieves. If Yahoo and the other web mail providers aren’t careful, their email addresses might wind up being unusable for ecommerce purposes. (hat-tip to SC Magazine)
Chris Richardson
Staff Writer | WebProNews
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