Yahoo Messenger Oddity

[Confusedanddazed]

On my contacts list in Yahoo Messenger when one of my friends is online a little yellow smiley face will appear. I have a friend who shows up as online with the little yellow smiley face but they swear they weren't online. I know they access their Yahoo account from their BlackBerry is it possible that the yellow smiley face could somehow show up if they aren't logged on? Or is it possible that they could be logged on but not on IM but just checking their Yahoo mail? I am so confused how this works. I don't want to believe this person is not telling me the truth but I can't figure out how it could show them as on if they aren't. Any answers would be most appreciated. Thanks

[patndoris]

Hello and welcome to BBB! There are a couple of things that could be going on.

First off, unless they change status to be invisible, they very well may just be checking their mail. Some users don't even realize they have chat available from the Yahoo Mail screens on the web.

I don't use a Blackberry, but the information pages show you can access both mail and messenger. So it's possible they are just checking email from the phone.

I have also seen cases where someone is actually offline, but the server is still showing them online. It's a lot less common but it does happen - especially if the person was locked up and didn't realize it.

If you just see the person come on for a few seconds then log off, their account could have been compromised and a remote computer is accessing it.

Hope this helps!