Yahoo Mail to stop automatic email forwarding for free users from 2021

New Delhi: Verizon, which bought Yahoo in 2017, announced that Yahoo Mail will discontinue automatic email forwarding for free users from 1st January 2021. The move is to reduce hacking attempts, said the Company

The company also announced that the existing users need to get a Pro account, which costs $34.99 per year, or $3.49 a month.

"Upgrade to Yahoo Mail Pro or subscribe to Access + Forwarding to use the auto forwarding feature at this time", informed the company

According to a report in ZDNet, automatic email forwarding is often abused.

The report said that hackers who breach email accounts often add their own email address as an automatic email forwarding rule to receive carbon copies of all messages a victim receives.

At the same time the company has clarified that the users will be able to view their emails in their Yahoo mailbox through web browser at mail.yahoo.com or via the Yahoo Mail apps.

"Yahoo Mail Pro subscribers will not be affected by this change," the company added.

Verizon said it regularly evaluates its products and services against current security standards and has decided to remove this feature to help ensure free Yahoo Mail accounts remain secure.

"The change will help us focus on building the best new features and experiences for our Yahoo Mail users",added the company

Last month,Yahoo had announced to shut down Yahoo Groups from December 15, facing a steady decline in usage over the last several years as it could not compete against new platforms like Reddit, Google Groups and Facebook Groups.

The Yahoo Groups service was launched in 2001.

The US wireless communications service provider Verizon bought Yahoo's tottering internet business for a mere $4.8 billion in 2017.

(This report is an edited version from IANS feed)