Years ago my yahoo messenger account was hacked and never retrieve it again, i lost all my YM buddies so i tried my best to remember the email address of some of my buddies so that i can get in touch with them and tell them that my account has been hack and that i have a new account but unfortunately i didn't remember them all and up to know i have retrieve all the contacts that i have lost.
I've found a feature in YM that would let you backup your contacts. all you have to do is create a new YM account after creating your new YM account follow this steps
- Login to Yahoo Messenger using your current Yahoo Account.
- Click Action and select "Send my messenger List"
- on the Send My Messenger List window select the Othe Contact Tab
- On the text box enter your new Yahoo Messenger ID. and Click Next
- On the next window you can check the Select All check box and click finish to send all your contact to your newly created YM account.
- then log-off your account ang login to your newly created YM Account
- then there you go you'll recieve all your ym contact on your new ym account.