It looks like Yahoo are adding adverts to incoming mail with Mail.app IMAP access

[Spanky Deluxe]

I've just noticed that some of my incoming mail has had a spammy advert looking thing attached to the end of it. This is not present when accessing my Yahoo! Mail account through my iPhone or the web application - only via Lion's mail.app.

My guess is that Yahoo are trying to recoup some of the ad income that they're losing out on by Mac users using mail.app to access IMAP mail vs people going to their website (Yahoo use a modified version of the IMAP protocol which stopped mainstream mail clients accessing it).

Problem is, they seem to be applying this across the board - I pay for a Yahoo Mail Plus account which is advert free yet I'm getting these spammy messages.

TODAY(Beta) • Powered by Yahoo!
{some junk news story}



I've emailed their support team and have sent them a tweet but haven't heard anything as yet about the issue.

 

[old-wiz]

I checked my mail with mail.app on Lion 10.7.3 Yahoo mail, and don't see the advert. Wonder if it's to a specific incoming site?

 

[Spanky Deluxe]

I've started getting the added adverts in some of my mail when viewing on my iPhone now too. Still no response from Yahoo.

 

[smileyborg]

I've started getting the added adverts in some of my mail when viewing on my iPhone now too. Still no response from Yahoo.

I'm in the exact same boat as you. First noticed it a day or so ago on a SENT message in my Yahoo! Mail Plus Sent mailbox. I thought they were adding spam to my sent emails at first, which I nearly flipped out at until I did some testing and saw that Yahoo must be appending the ad during IMAP access.

This is completely unacceptable as I am already paying for Mail Plus AND business web hosting/email with them.

I'm going to contact them as well.

----------

Found online from someone who contacted support about this:

Thank you for writing to Yahoo! Mail.

From what I understand, you are displeased with the extra content added
to the bottom of messages you send using your mobile device's IMAP
application. I am very sorry you have experienced this inconvenience,
and I will be glad to address this issue for you.

Yahoo! has added the best of the web content to the bottom of your email
messages. This will allow you to conveniently see trending topics while
you are reading your email on your mobile device.

By adding the best of the web content to the bottom of your email this
allows Yahoo! to continue to provide a free, top notch email product.

The best of the web content may appear if you have a free Yahoo! Mail
account and are also checking your free mail account using IMAP.
Unfortunately, this cannot be disabled.

If you have a Yahoo! Mail Plus account and are using IMAP, this content
snippet will not appear. For more information on Mail Plus and to sign
up for this service, please visit:

http://overview.mail.yahoo.com/enhancements/mailplus


I appreciate you giving me the opportunity to help you. Please let us
know if you have any additional questions or concerns regarding Yahoo!
Mail and we will be happy to assist you further. I hope you have a great
day!

Thank you again for contacting Yahoo! Mail.

Apparently Yahoo Mail Plus users should NOT be seeing these. Something is wrong and I'm not happy about it.

 

[Spanky Deluxe]

I'm in the exact same boat as you. First noticed it a day or so ago on a SENT message in my Yahoo! Mail Plus Sent mailbox. I thought they were adding spam to my sent emails at first, which I nearly flipped out at until I did some testing and saw that Yahoo must be appending the ad during IMAP access.

This is completely unacceptable as I am already paying for Mail Plus AND business web hosting/email with them.

I'm going to contact them as well.

----------

Found online from someone who contacted support about this:

Apparently Yahoo Mail Plus users should NOT be seeing these. Something is wrong and I'm not happy about it.

Good find. I did the online chat thing with customer services at Yahoo a few days ago and although the guy couldn't help me, he's passed it on to the higher level support, Yahoo! Engineering Team. Hopefully it won't take too long for them to get back to me and fix the problem.

 

[smileyborg]

It seems as though this issue was a bug, since I'm paying for Yahoo Mail Plus. Haven't noticed any of these ads recently. Whew!