Okay, it's five hours since my last post. I just got off the phone with Yahoo customer service (866-562-7219). The first guy I talked to asked me the standard "name, date of birth" runaround, and he also asked me my "secret question." He then told me my account would have to be forwarded on to account security for them to do an investigation, because I had not answered something correctly, and that this process could take 3-5 business days. I shared with him my worries that my personal information could be compromised, and that the clock was ticking, in effect - the longer these losers have my info, the more likely it is they can cull something of use out of the (literally) thousands of e-mail messages I have stored. I asked if I could speak with a supervisor, and he did transfer me over immediately.

The supervisor did the exact same series of questions, and informed me again that I had not provided the correct information. I again (politely - don't want to make tech folks angry, or you'll never get *anywhere*) informed him of my serious concerns, and offered to give whatever additional information I could to verify it was me - I told him I'd had this Yahoo account since November of 1997, told him my password (and probably security info like my birthdate) had been reset sometime in the past 24 hours, rattled off a series of alternate e-mails I've had over the past nine years, and told him the url of the phishing site (one of their own! a geocities site that is hopefully down by now). Somewhere in there I might have pressed the magic button, because he told me that I had been able to give him some piece of information that was independently verifiable, although he wouldn't tell me what it was. (Understandable on their part - after all, *I* might be the phisher, for all he knows).

Anyway, he asked me for an alternate e-mail that they could send a new password to once they get it all straightened out. He warned me that whoever stole my account (it appeared he was believing me now) probably had much of my information from my account stored, and that it would be a good idea to set up a new account (bleh! I got in on the ground floor with Yahoo e-mail, and was able to get my own name - fat chance of anything close to that now).

At any rate, that's where it stands. Hopefully, in a day or two, I'll be able to post again and say that I got my account back. Keep your fingers crossed, folks.