Okay, folks, here's how it wrapped up for me:

I got phished through the (now old news) Geocities hack Saturday morning. I didn't notice until late afternoon, but didn't realized I'd been hijacked until around midnight. I called the Yahoo service number (go back a page or two on this list - it's an 800 or 888 number, toll-free in the US) and found out they do business starting at 6 AM Pacific time.

6 AM I was on the phone. I got right through (probably because it was a Sunday morning - less traffic than a business day). The tech's name was R.J., and he ran me through the standard rigamarole that several of you have mentioned - actual name, date of birth, alternate e-mail address, etc. He told me what the reps told many of you, that my info didn't match. He would send it on to the famed "second level" of security for those folks to deal with, and I should know something in 3-5 business days.

Here's where I might hold the magic key with these folks. Knowing a lot of techies (and kind of being one myself, I guess) I know they pretty much hold all the cards in a situation like this. So, my advice to you is this: despite how freaked out you may be, do NOT yell or get angry at the Tech. He's probably in New Delhi or Karachi and doesn't really give a rip about you or your only digital photos of Aunt Edna, but he is willing to do his job to the best of his ability, provided you don't tick him off.

So, to that end, I very politely asked if I could speak with his supervisor. He told me his supervisor would only give me the same information, but I (again politely) insisted I speak with him. I then got John, R.J.'s supervisor, who again did the whole "name, date of birth" yadda yadda with me. When I reached the same dead-end with him, I began offering information - every e-mail address I'd used since 1997 (since signing up with Yahoo). Something must have clicked, because he then told me I'd given him some information that did indeed match up - he couldn't tell me what information, only that some information did match up.

I asked if I could speak to someone at the "second level," but he told me they had no phone service there (where are they, the island from "Lost" or something? ) Anyway, he then began to talk to me like I really was who I was saying I was, telling me that it would be a good idea "once I got back into my account" (so glad to hear that little phrase) to set up a new account.

The e-mail that was sent to my alternate address came in less than 24 hours after my 6 AM phone call. They even called back the following day (my wife got the call) to check on it, and to make sure I was back in my account.

I can't speak to the problems that some of you have been having. My advice would be to be as kind and gentle as you can with these guys, because it did seem to work for me. Besides, it's not really their fault we got phished - in my case, I've been online (on the WWW) since 1996, and have been logging on with a computer to bulletin board systems (BBS's) since 1982 with my Commodore Vic-20. So, if anyone should know, it should be me, and I still got hooked. Good luck, everyone... there IS hope!!!!!!