What To Do When You Think Your Email Account May Have Been Hacked

Almost all of us have received an email at one time or another, that we’ve questioned and know are not “legit” – You know the ones that come in from co-workers, friends or family stressing it’s an emergency and they need our help, they are stuck in Europe and lost all their money-please send some immediately ~ or ~ maybe it’s an ad for some “enhancing drugs” ~ or ~  it has a website/hyperlink that will take us to a website that might not be of any interest to us or anyone we know for that matter..

If and when your account has been compromised--or hacked--it means that someone has possibly stolen your username and your password and might be using your account to access your personal info or send spam to everyone on your contact list. It is important to notify your email and or ISP provider – do not reply directly to the email, but immediately call your co-worker, friend or family member and let them know…

When an e-mail account is hacked or taken over, the one who has done this, almost always will use the account to spread spam or in some cases viruses.   If someone in you know is receiving e-mail from you with one of these types of messages, you can almost guarantee that your email account has been compromised in some way. Immediately log into your email account and change your password if you can…

If you can’t log into your email, and you use one of the free accounts, such as Hotmail, gmail, yahoo or the like, try to use the “forgot my password” feature that they offer, and usually this will allow  you to reset your password and the message will stop.

If you are unable to change your password or this service does not work the only people who are going to be able to reset your account information is the company or ISP who is providing you e-mail access.

If you are attempting to get into your email account and are greeted with a message which states the account has been blocked due to sending junk messages, and, if it then asks for password information, then, you can almost guarantee your account has been hacked. It is important for you to file out the Live Help Form and for the official reply from MSN – some say they’ve received responses within hours others have said it took over a week.. But remember, a Password reset should only be done through the MSN or other ISP provider email support. You will have to clearly explain the problem to them and key in details of their identity. Once this form is filled in, the process will take off

Some accounts offer you the ability to “Mark As” and offer options in the command section, notifying your provider that the email has been compromised – it might say “my friends been hacked” or other similar terminology…

There are hundreds if not thousands of accounts being blocked because they were hacked and used for spamming, so depending on your Internet Service and/or email provider, it may take up to two weeks before you get an answer.  If the above solution does not work, your account may very well be is lost forever.

Periodically back up or print off your contact list, so that if this happens, you will have your contact list handy when you establish a new account.