Account locked or....? I'm confused.

[MarkTheMuffin]

So here I was, sitting here, I decided to reply to an email I got earlier. So I put mail.yahoo.com into my address bar and I'm greeted by "Temporary problem accessing your mailbox.... blah blah". Interesting, I think. I tried to log in using IE (I use Firefox usually) but now it just told me 'invalid password'. My messenger was connected, so I tried to reconnect to that to see what happened: "Invalid Password"
I can see my mails still, I'm still signed in using firefox (until the cookie expires, I assume) and if I bash the refresh button a few times it seems to work and I can still open and read the mails and send responses which get through, however, when I try sending a mail to the yahoo address it bounces. I had some photos in the photo album thing, which still exist, and a geocities page which also still exists. I would have thought, had my account been deactivated, these would have disappeared too...?
My profile however has gone completely blank.

I'm wondering if I should just be patient or sign myself up another ID... anyone know?

Thanks.

[Oreo]

It sounds like your account COULD have been taken over by some one. Have you accepted any links or photos from anyone? FIRST...before you do anything...check your system with updated Virus and spyware programs. If you have magic PS I believe Spybot can handle it but you may also want to get a trojan scanner to make sure you do not have something else. Once you are SURE your machine is clean...you can do a few things. 1. If you know your original information you can conatact Yahoo! and get back your account. 2. If you do not know the original info you can do what you planned on and get a new account. You mentioned you were not able to sign into other areas of Yahoo! after you signed out....that leads me to believe it is not just a simple thing of you entering the wrong password into messenger three times. Let us know what happens or if you need more help.

[MarkTheMuffin]

Cool, thanks for that.
I haven't received any files from anyone recently, so I don't think it's that. I'll run myself a few scans later to check if my machine is clean anyway.

I thought about the possibility of someone else getting into my account and changing the passwords, but the thing is, when I try to send an email to the yahoo account it just bounces saying this:

Technical details of failure:
PERM_FAILURE: SMTP Error (state 13): 554 delivery error: dd This user doesn't have a yahoo.co.uk account ([edited]@yahoo.co.uk) [-5] - mta108.mail.ukl.yahoo.com

Now, to me, that suggests my account has disappeared, and the only way someone (other than yahoo) could have achieved that is to delete it, right? But if they'd deleted it then surely my yahoo photos and geocities stuff would have vanished too...? Just seems weird to me. My profile's totally blank now, and it says it was last updated today.

Looks like all my cookies and whatnot have expired now as I can't get into my mail anymore. It sends me to the login screen, so I try logging in and I'm just greeted by an invalid password screen.

Unfortunately, I don't know what details I entered, I know I never fill in fields like Zip Address truthfully, so if it doesn't start working again on it's own then I'll have to make a new one. Luckily though since I still had some access to my mail I quickly saved all the important stuff into a text file.

[MarkTheMuffin]

Ok just as an update, the account has been deactivated. Presumably it's apparently for violating their ToS, but it's beyond me exactly what I did. Strangely, the geocities page and photos still exist, although it's impossible for me to get in and edit them.

[Oreo]

I'm sorry to hear that happened to you. Did they at least explain EXACTLY how you violated their ToS?? If they claim you violated them and do not know what you have done....it sounds a bit off. Since you do not know what you did...perhaps write them and say to avoid doing that in future you would like to know what you did.

[MarkTheMuffin]

Well, no they didn't. I used the retrieve password system they had, I said earlier I didn't know what details I would have filled in originally but like with Zip Address, I just usually change one letter around, so I was able to guess what I probably put in. It just said my account had been deactivated, with this message:

Please remember that the Yahoo! Terms of Service provides that Yahoo! may terminate your Yahoo! account in certain situations, including (a) where a violation of the TOS or other incorporated agreements or guidelines has occured, (b) in response to a request by you (self-initiated account deletions), or (c) extended periods of inactivity. For full information, please review the entire Terms of Service.

I certainly didn't do b) and as for c), I've been using it virtually every day so that's not it, making a) the most likely reason... I skimmed through the ToS but I can't see what I did to violate it. I'm not really that bothered, it's just a little inconvenient. Like I said, I managed to get all the important stuff out of my inbox before I lost access to it, so I didn't lose anything.