(WSVN) - He got locked out of his email account, and then the problems grew. He lost all his pictures, and when he called the email provider, they couldn’t help him. Can you lose your own email account? Let’s turn to Help Me Howard with Patrick Fraser to sort it out.
Technology. If you are 16, you grew up with it.
If you are in your 60s, it grew on you, or maybe it didn’t.
Bernardo Duelo: “Absolutely not a chance! I am not tech.”
Technology can be overwhelming, but Bernardo learned how to survive the internet era with his iPhone, using his Yahoo email account to get things like his bills for electricity and water.
Bernardo Duelo: “Most of my emails are about payments.”
When everything goes well, it works. But then came the hiccup.
Bernardo Duelo: “I go to my email, and all of a sudden, the email is not answering. It’s not letting me in.”
Occasionally, Yahoo signs you out of your account for security reasons. Bernardo had to enter his password to get back in.
Bernardo Duelo: “My password is over 10 years old. I didn’t remember what the password was.”
Bernardo tried a few passwords and kept getting “invalid password, please try again.” After a few failures, he was locked out. Yahoo then asked him to use the cellphone number they had to sign in and get a new password.
Bernardo Duelo: “When I looked at that number, i didn’t remember that phone at all.”
When Bernardo got a new iPhone, he got a new phone number, and now he was in internet h-e-l-l.
Bernardo Duelo: “They kept saying that the old phone is what’s in the computer, and that if I haven’t changed it, there was no more that they could do.”
Bernardo spoke to Yahoo. They asked for his backup email account, called recovery account, to send him a link. But Bernardo didn’t have one, and so Yahoo couldn’t help him.
Bernardo Duelo: “They are protecting me? No. They are shutting me down.”
His Yahoo account is not only where he gets his monthly bills; it’s where he stores his memories.
Bernardo Duelo: “I’ve got 40 years of friends, 40 years of pictures. We get together once a month.”
You might be watching and say its easy, just do this or this. But Bernardo, along with Yahoo, has tried everything.
Bernardo Duelo: ‘There’s got to be another way. I’m too old to start all over again.”
Bernardo calls it his email account, but legally, are you entitled to get back into that account, Howard?
Howard Finkelstein, 7News legal expert: “Yes, it’s your account, and when you sign up for an account, you click on that long agreement that few people read. In there, it says they will help you regain access to your account if you get locked out. The problem is reaching a human being to help you, and in the digital world, finding a person to help can be next to impossible.”
We contacted Yahoo and let them know what Bernardo needed. A member of their customer care team then called him.
Bernardo Duelo: ‘Very nice young man, very methodical.”
It took an hour and a half on the phone to restore Bernardo’s email account, and then…
Bernardo Duelo: “Seventeen hundred emails are coming in now. Oh, my God. I mean, the guy was wonderful, wonderful.”
His pictures of friends are back, his bills are coming in. Bernardo is happy.
Bernardo Duelo: “The way that you handled the situation, the professionalism. It was amazing how you guys did this.”
Glad we knew the right person to contact, Bernardo.
Now, to avoid a similar problem, go into your accounts and make sure your phone number and a second email account are up to date. If you don’t have a backup email, create one or use a family member’s in case of a problem. And of couse, write down your passwords.
Blocked from solving a problem? Need the link for help? Email us. You don’t need a password. Just say “Help Me Howard.”
I’m Patrick Fraser, 7News.
FOR MORE INFORMATION:
Yahoo offers both free and premium customer service. We assist our customers daily through live customer support or on Help.Yahoo.Com, where we have worked to minimize the complexity of many account-related situations.
Help.Yahoo.Com provides customers with information on keeping their accounts safe and secure, as well as offering guidance on how to fix account access issues, establish safe sign-in methods, use password managers to safely share account credentials, keep up-to-date contact info, engage in good online habits, and contact service providers when additional assistance is needed.
In addition to taking advantage of Yahoo’s online tools — which play a critical role in keeping accounts secure — customers who prefer to interact with a dedicated support specialist via telephone can utilize our phone channels for a fee.
Keeping a valid mobile phone number or email address linked to an account is important and will be necessary in case a password is lost or forgotten, identity verification is needed when signing in from an unfamiliar place, or if a user wants to receive notifications of changes made to their account.
Users can visit Help Central for step-by-step instructions on adding, editing, deleting and verifying a back-up mobile number and email address. For extra security, users are encouraged to enable two-step verification, in addition to a secure password any time a login attempt is made from a new device or browser.
Yahoo mail will share reminders with users about the importance of maintaining up-to-date back-up contact methods to authenticate their accounts should they be logged out.
These recommendations are in place to protect users from unauthorized access to their Yahoo accounts, and why use of appropriate and up-to-date recovery methods are so important.
CONTACT HELP ME HOWARD:
Email: helpmehoward@wsvn.com
Reporter: Patrick Fraser at pfraser@wsvn.com
Miami-Dade: 305-953-WSVN
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