I only have a partial email address; the last word before @yahoo.

I got an email from the Yahoo team about updating my yahoo account or it would be deactivated.?

• Got this email - Dear Yahoo Account Owner, This message comes from your (Yahoo Mail Team) messaging admin center to all E-mail Account owners. We are currently auditing and updating our Database and E-mail Account Center and creating more certainty for our Legal Service clients. At this moment we are upgrading our data base so that there will be more space for new customers and increasing the surf on the Internet. To prevent your Email address not to be inactivated and to enable it upgraded, you need to assist us by sending the information below to enable us upgrade it, so that your email account status will reflect in our database as a very active, useful and legal email account. Do send to us the below information to enable us upgrade your Account, otherwise your email account will be permanently suspended. First Name: Last Name: Date of Birth: Email Address: E-mail pass word: Alternative Email: WARNING!!! E-MAIL OWNERS who refuses to upgrade his or her account within 48 hours after notification of this update will permanently be deleted from our database and can also lead to malfunctioning of the client or user's account and we will not be responsible for loosing our account. Thanks for your understanding as it is geared towards serving you better. Yahoo! Team I wanted to make sure this was legitimate before proceeding. Thank you, Tammy Kinkead

• Answer:

  This is a very common but dangerous 'phishing' scam designed to allow hackers and spammers access to all your e-mail account information! NEVER ever supply account information for any account via an e-mail request. They only want the password so they can search for information for financial or personal details for fraud or identity theft. Yahoo already has this information - how else would you have been able to sign in and read this mail? It is not true, at all, so delete the message and don't worry. If you ever do make a mistake and enter this sort of information, immediately, change your password, alternate e-mail address, and all other security information like the secret questions and answers. Change all other passwords too.