Email Hacked?

[Rosehip]

If one of the computer experts here could help me, I'd be really thankful. It has just come to my attention that someone appears to have hacked one of my email accounts and is sending indecent spam to all my email contacts. I am totally embarrassed and appalled and want to rectify the situation. What can I do about it? A friend just sent me the link to the message she keeps receiving from "me" (and demanded an explanation for the indecency), otherwise I would have had no clue as to what was going on.

[bogdan]

Can you still log in to your email? If so, go in and change your password first thing.

If the hacker changed your password and you can't login, they should have a means for you to reset your password, or even a system specifically for dealing with hackers. Check the help page if all else fails.

What email service do you use?

[Rosehip]

Thank you so much, Bogdan! I'll look into this immediately. I use Yahoo.

[Andrea]

Quite a few people I know that use Yahoo have had this happen lately.   Seems like a Yahoo problem. Can you change email providers?

[Rosehip]

Quite a few people I know that use Yahoo have had this happen lately.   Seems like a Yahoo problem. Can you change email providers?

Thanks, Andrea! That's so comforting to know. It's a bit horrifying to think that friends are getting lewd messages about which you know nothing...

[bogdan]

If you can't login to your account, follow the form on this page:

https://edit.yahoo.com/forgotroot?done=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.yahoo.com%2F&src=fpctx&partner=&intl=us

ANd choose "My account may have been compromised".

[Rosehip]

If you can't login to your account, follow the form on this page:

https://edit.yahoo.com/forgotroot?done=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.yahoo.com%2F&src=fpctx&partner=&intl=us

ANd choose "My account may have been compromised".

Thanks so much, bogdan! I didn't know about this link, but I changed my password, and got some kind of higher security thing, so I hope it will help.

[Justin Kissel]

Hopefully it won't happen again. And fwiw, I've also had this happen to me (though it was with my hotmail or gmail account, I forget which).

[LizaSymonenko]

Rosehip,

Don't worry about it!  It's happened to most everyone.  It's not even that they "hacked" your email account as might simply be using your email address and sending it to the whole world.  I've had it happen to me, to my sister, to my friends.

Anyone who knows you would realize that you would not be "pushing" viagra....which is what I happened to be selling a few weeks ago to my friends!  :-)  Everyone knows me better and realized it wasn't really me sending the spam.  If they mouse over the originating email address....it will show them it's not truly your email address.

Just last week, I found an apparent email that "I" had sent to myself...this time it was some kind of vitamins.

Don't worry too much about it.

If your friend honestly was upset with you, then they don't really know you....and thereby, aren't really a friend, now are they?

[Rosehip]

That's just the thing, Liza. This friend is my best and oldest friends-we've been friends for over 20 years now, and it rather hurt me that she was accusing me of indecency. And one of my siblings was telling me what a stupid fool I was for indiscriminately handing out my email address-which is NOT what I do. So I've been feeling a bit hurt at being misunderstood by people whom I thought knew me through and through. Sigh. Oh well! Worse things by far could happen, as we all know!!

[GiC]

That's just the thing, Liza. This friend is my best and oldest friends-we've been friends for over 20 years now, and it rather hurt me that she was accusing me of indecency. And one of my siblings was telling me what a stupid fool I was for indiscriminately handing out my email address-which is NOT what I do. So I've been feeling a bit hurt at being misunderstood by people whom I thought knew me through and through. Sigh. Oh well! Worse things by far could happen, as we all know!!

Look at the IP's from which the e-mails are being sent and try to trace them back to the source. It could be that a virus has uploaded address book information to a server (you don't use Outlook, do you?) and is sending out e-mails to those on your contact list masking their e-mail address with yours. The could be doing the same thing off your computer, I'm assuming you're running Windows, do you have an antivirus such as AVG installed?

Then again, it could be that a Yahoo server was compromised, in which case there's not a whole lot you can do about it or could have done to prevent it. If you can get the ip's from which the e-mails originated and rule out your own ip (execute the command ipconfig from the console), I might be able to track them down for you.

If you're running any OS but Windows, it's yahoo's fault and I wouldn't worry about it.

[Entscheidungsproblem]

I know this sounds overly simplistic, but one should always include their own e-mail account within their contact list.  If the account is compromised and your contacts are spammed, you will be aware of it as soon as they are.

Yahoo hasn't had the best reputation when it comes to their security practices, allowing various holes to remain wide open for far too long.

[Rosehip]

Thanks for the advice, GiC and Ent...(each new name becomes trickier than the one before! )!

[PrincessMommy]

Quite a few people I know that use Yahoo have had this happen lately.   Seems like a Yahoo problem. Can you change email providers?

Thanks, Andrea! That's so comforting to know. It's a bit horrifying to think that friends are getting lewd messages about which you know nothing...

What a bother!

I've had a few of those sent to me by friends when their email got hacked (And I think at least one was Yahoo).  Anyway, I rarely think it is *them* and usually figure they've been hacked.  I usually try to figure out a way to contact them to let them know they've probably been hacked.  I'm sure you're friends must realize this.  At least someone thought to let you know.

[macj8899]

You may consider switching to a Mac.  It seems that hackers love Windows machines.  Another idea is to use something like Linux.  Ubuntu is a great distro and will give most people all they need.  You are much more secure in this system from these sorts of things.

[stashko]

I recieved a email supposedly from yahoo requesting i email them my passwords of my email accounts ,so they can deactive the ones that i rarely use..Not sure if it was legit or not ,i just ignored and delited the email...

[Entscheidungsproblem]

I recieved a email supposedly from yahoo requesting i email them my passwords of my email accounts ,so they can deactive the ones that i rarely use..Not sure if it was legit or not ,i just ignored and delited the email...

An e-mail service will never ask you for your password since they have no need for it.  An administrator can deactivate accounts at will.

[stashko]

I recieved a email supposedly from yahoo requesting i email them my passwords of my email accounts ,so they can deactive the ones that i rarely use..Not sure if it was legit or not ,i just ignored and delited the email...

An e-mail service will never ask you for your password since they have no need for it.  An administrator can deactivate accounts at will.

Great to know...So it was a Phishing email sent to me interesting......

[Irish Melkite]

I recieved a email supposedly from yahoo requesting i email them my passwords of my email accounts ,so they can deactive the ones that i rarely use..Not sure if it was legit or not ,i just ignored and delited the email...

An e-mail service will never ask you for your password since they have no need for it.  An administrator can deactivate accounts at will.

Great to know...So it was a Phishing email sent to me interesting......

stashko,


You'll find that you get these periodically (at least I have) - if you check the email addy, you'll generally note that there is something a bit 'off' about it and there's usually some slight indication that the sender is not a native English speaker - just some odd phrasing. Always delete them. You can report them to yahoo, but I finally gave up because it wasn't worth my time.

Many years,

Neil

[Irish Melkite]

Rosehip,

The advice about including yourself in your email address book is excellent. And, I agree it's frustrating that someone who knows you well would believe that you would send such stuff.

I have a yahoo acct that I use for only a single purpose - in conjunction w/ an online directory of Eastern & Oriental Catholic Churches of which I'm the webmaster/admin. Not long ago, I got an email from a name that I recognized, a woman who is the webmaster of an EC parish in the midwest.

I assumed that she was writing to provide me w/ updated info for the parish's directory entry and was a bit taken aback on opening it to find that the email was touting viagra. It only took me a second to conclude that her email acct had been hacked and I wrote to advise her immediately, but figured she likely already knew because the email was a couple days old when I saw it. Hearing back from her, I learned that I was the first to call it to her attention; on contacting friends to warn them, she was appalled to learn that others had received it and not advised her because they were embarrassed to ask her why she had done this (like your correspondents, they assumed stupidly that she actually authored it).

I can only conclude that, at such times, the shock factor just overwhelms some people's good sense.

Many years,

Neil
 

[GiC]

Rosehip,

The advice about including yourself in your email address book is excellent. And, I agree it's frustrating that someone who knows you well would believe that you would send such stuff.

I have a yahoo acct that I use for only a single purpose - in conjunction w/ an online directory of Eastern & Oriental Catholic Churches of which I'm the webmaster/admin. Not long ago, I got an email from a name that I recognized, a woman who is the webmaster of an EC parish in the midwest.

I assumed that she was writing to provide me w/ updated info for the parish's directory entry and was a bit taken aback on opening it to find that the email was touting viagra. It only took me a second to conclude that her email acct had been hacked and I wrote to advise her immediately, but figured she likely already knew because the email was a couple days old when I saw it. Hearing back from her, I learned that I was the first to call it to her attention; on contacting friends to warn them, she was appalled to learn that others had received it and not advised her because they were embarrassed to ask her why she had done this (like your correspondents, they assumed stupidly that she actually authored it).

I can only conclude that, at such times, the shock factor just overwhelms some people's good sense.

Many years,

Neil
 

Wow...are you actually suggesting that there are actually people out there who are too stupid to realize these messages are spam from a compromised system? I don't know, I just find that kinda hard to believe; it takes a quick glance and, literally, less than a second to realize that these messages are mass marketing spam, the structure of the subject line and headers is usually enough to know they're manipulating them to get through spam blockers.

[Irish Melkite]

Wow...are you actually suggesting that there are actually people out there who are too stupid to realize these messages are spam from a compromised system?

GiC,

You give people too much credit. Because people use technology, it does not follow that they're smart enough to see thru its misuse. If they were, the Nigerian bank account scam wouldn't have lasted a week - instead it snares people daily, still, despite the massive publicity given to exposure of it. There's no reason to think that, in other instances, where greed isn't a factor, that folks are ny smarter.

Many years,

Neil

[GiC]

Wow...are you actually suggesting that there are actually people out there who are too stupid to realize these messages are spam from a compromised system?

GiC,

You give people too much credit. Because people use technology, it does not follow that they're smart enough to see thru its misuse. If they were, the Nigerian bank account scam wouldn't have lasted a week - instead it snares people daily, still, despite the massive publicity given to exposure of it. There's no reason to think that, in other instances, where greed isn't a factor, that folks are ny smarter.

Many years,

Neil

Maybe they're not any smarter, but it's still kind of shocking to think that there are people like that out there. People who honestly think it's more probable that their friend started marketing Viagra to them, not through a personalized e-mail, but through a one line e-mail with a link to a less than reputable website, than it is to assume the system was compromised.

That's not only a failure to understand how technology works, it's also a failure to understand your friend and people in general...

[Tikhon.of.Colorado]

the same thing happened to me a few weeks ago     

what worked for me was, on another computer, change your password.  also, I just wrote my contacts down and deleted the entire list (thatway I have no contacts for someone to spam)

also, MAKE SURE people know that this is happening.  a second e-mail "I" sent out was to a Russian website sending out viruses.  well....long story short, my poor godmother opened the link, and she now can no longer use her computer.  WARN EVERYONE.

[vamrat]

Some [expletive] hacked my hotmail account a few weeks ago. Change you password like others have suggested.  Also, I would delete your cookies in your system files.  I deleted my entire address book as well.  It was a bit drastic but it ended the issue.  No address book, nothing for the spammers to go off of!

[ma2000]

Also, scan you computer for viruses.

[The young fogey]

I have a Yahoo account too and had this happen around the same time this year. Somebody told me to completely change my PW and so far, so good.

[NorthernPines]

I have a Yahoo account too and had this happen around the same time this year. Somebody told me to completely change my PW and so far, so good.

Apparently Yahoo is having some "issues" again...my email has been used as a spamming account for viagra or some crap. The bad thing was it didn't happen until AFTER I switched to their new and improved email....blah. I changed my password, and switched back to classic view. Thank goodness I rarely use yahoo anyways because I actually hate their email account but its still a pain to have to explain to everyone what the heck is going on.

[annajohnson]

If your email is hacked then you can email or contact on that address which contact is available on the website of that domain. It will helpful for you. The administration of the domain can help you.

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