So I am deleting my contact list from yahoo and gradually informing sites to which I subscribe e.g. Find My Past. Having had a look at the format/ease of use of AOL email, I think that I will use it as my primary email account. I have a 'google' mail account but find it difficult/strange to use
AOL is my ISP and has been so since I signed up for broadband. It still offers me the best broadband and telephone package.
Yes another familiar topic. I too have been involved on four occasions, twice sadly, when it was my email account that was hacked and friends were unwittingly involved and twice when I had been in the same position as yourself but receiving Hotmail (not Yahoo) hacked emails sent unknowingly via friends' address books. (My nephew however who has a Yahoo account has been 'hit' twice, and I am forever telling his to ditch Yahoo which has quite a reputation for such happenings).
I have never had a Yahoo email address but have had a Hotmail account seemingly for ever and Gmail for a year or so. I call these communal emails and Google mail (aka Gmail) is another. I use both Hotmail (now morphed into Outlook) & Gmail very sparingly mostly to sign in to online accounts rather than send to friends. If you use any of them make sure your password is as good as you can make it at least 10 characters long using an odd upper case letter,random number(s) and characters ($&*). That's the best advice but see later as well.
My main email account still has the @AOL suffix, even though as you say AOL UK is owned and run by TalkTalk but as I have used the same email for years I did not want to change. I do however have some additional AOL names, and of course one under TalkTalk. Some of the problems of the past with AOL email (Peter has drawn attention to this on occasion in the past) are largely now resolved, or at least have not come to my attention of late. As I said in my previous posting, AOL is particularly user friendly for email, even if its desktop browser isn't. If in doubt access the AOL (or TalkTalk) web site through your normal browser, that will overcome its seeming tendency to 'hang' though I still have that under observation.
Back to the actual hacking, there is little you can do to prevent yourself receiving 'hacked' emails from friends and family - but pay particularly attention to those from the 3 communal sources mentioned above. It calls for self vigilance and beware when asked to click on a link which is where the problem lies. If you have family & friends who are always sending links to scenic pictures or funnies, ask them to add a personal message "you'll like this Bob"....sort of thing. As to your own email even if not one of the communal types, then
password, password, password is the order of the day. I recall Alexander telling how he does this by thinking of a saying or perhaps a silly sentence (like, but make up your own) -the cat sat on the mat and ate green figs. Use the initial letters, start with a couple of numbers, add a couple of random upper case letters, one or two symbols and finish on a number. Then commit it to memory and write it down and keep safe. That's the best armour you can have. After all hackers want an easy life and their intruder programs sniff out easy targets. Just make sure you are not one of them.
Of course ensure you have a good security program like Kaspersky or Norton and there are some good free additional 'spyware' programs on the market you can run in ad hoc fashion as well (ignore comments that they clash with your main behind the scenes security program as I have used such additional programs for years and for sleuthing out 'nasty ' adware & cookies they are top notch). Belt and bracers works for me every time
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I will ponder further and advise if I think of anything that might help.