Yahoo Mail - Received verification OTP from a private number.

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Yesterday, when I logged in to my Yahoo Mail account, I received the OTP on my phone which I entered on the site and the mailbox opened. After finishing my work, when I was going to delete the OTP from the phone, I noticed that it had come from an private number. Generally OTPs come from a sender that is all capital alphabets and six or seven digits long; in the case of Gmail, the OTP comes from a six digit number but not a regular phone number.

I again logged in to Yahoo Mail and again got the OTP from a private number, this one a different one. I then logged out, logged in again but this time chose to receive the OTP on another email account, and then in Yahoo Mail, I changed the password.

Truecaller shows both the private numbers as registered to individuals and located in Uttar Pradesh. Even the text of the first OTP is not correct; it says "XXXXXX is your YAH00 verification p¡n" - the spelling of Yahoo has two zeroes and the 'i' in 'pin' is also different. The text of the other OTP doesn't have such mistakes.

This morning, I tried to contact Yahoo about this but found that there is no method to do so. They don't have an email ID to which I can send a complaint message, and they keep pushing a paid service as an option. There was a contact option on their site but after selecting Mail as the first option (Choose Product), and communicating with a specialist as the second option (Choose Support Option), it keeps going back to the first option (asking which service I need help with). This keeps happening again and again.

Have others faced any such issue, on Yahoo or anywhere else? And how do I contact Yahoo Mail about this?

That sounds shady AF. A quick search pointed me to this link - Help for your Yahoo Account

Have you checked this?

B

I have tried that option; that's a paid one. I find this really strange: a big email service provider like Yahoo not having a simple customer support option?

There are apps, termux packages for sms bombing.
BOMBitUP
SkTechBomber
TBomb by SpeedX

These are sms bombing apps for fun. Sends OTP SMS in bulk to any number.

Something like this is used in your case. So don't worry.

But from Yahoo?

Considering present Yahoo's conditions (Especially after acquired by verizon) most probably They are saving money by using some bot/app on a private number. Nowadays, Sim providers in india give upto 100 messages/day free with most unlimited recharges, so maybe there requirement is below 100 messages per day in india and using private number is cheaper for them.

I strongly suggest leave yahoo as it is no longer privacy centric, and is slowly getting more vulnerable.

I am getting so much spams everyday on outlook as recently data leaked from Domino's server.
I report those emails. Or ignore it.
Or stop using that email.
Nothing much you can do about it.

W

An unrequested verification code is a giant neon sign saying, “Someone is trying to sign in to your account!” That means your username and password could be compromised. Thus, it's time to log into your account and change your password. Make sure you're coming up with something strong and unique

Regards,

Willjoe said:
An unrequested verification code is a giant neon sign saying, “Someone is trying to sign in to your account!” That means your username and password could be compromised. Thus, it's time to log into your account and change your password. Make sure you're coming up with something strong and unique

Regards,

Also it means that you can't use same password for other logins too..

Switch to gmail if you can.

BhargavJ said:
I have tried that option; that's a paid one. I find this really strange: a big email service provider like Yahoo not having a simple customer support option?

Does Google have ?

I have been using TOTP based apps rather than not mobile OTPs.
But that's largely since I don't get much tower reception at my home. Seems a good decision.