Yahoo account hacked with strange circumstances; what should I do?

[ryko]

I have the usual "my account was hacked and spam was sent to all my contacts" problem, but mine is a little different. Not only did the hacker spam all my contacts, but s/he then deleted all my contacts, and all the e-mails in my inbox! Plus the preferences I had set for my account (like using Classic Mail rather than the newest version, and having Chat set as "invisible") were all changed.

Luckily, some of the deleted contacts were still in the "deleted contacts" folder, so I was able to reinstate those and contact some of them to let them know what happened. But I have no idea who else the spam was sent to, and how I can fix this.

So far, I've changed my password, and I've checked all the other account information, and my alternate e-mail addresses are all as usual. I assume I will have to close this account, but I can't do it right now because I need to locate all my contacts first (and try to remember who they all were). What can I do to avoid this kind of incident in the future? And why did the hacker delete my entire inbox and all my contacts? None of the other e-mails in specific folders were deleted, only the inbox e-mails.

Also, the e-mail sent from the account was asking for money (I was in Spain and needed money to help a friend). Could I be prosecuted for something like this if someone reports me for fraud? I'm a little worried about that (though there is probably a small chance of that happening) because I'm sure some of the contacts who received the e-mail were large businesses with whom I've had occasional contact, and they may be less tolerant of requests for money.