Email Hacked

Question

Difficult to find right place for this, but my email was hacked and many people in my address book received spam email requesting Amazon voucher. &nbsp;Situation was recovered with help of call centre, new password etc. &nbsp; However in getting back to my emails there were issues with my contacts list/address book. &nbsp; There are two list contacts and collected addresses, the collected addresses has to some extent rebuilt but my contacts list has disappeared except for one I added back. &nbsp; Have ereported this twice but there seems to be no answer as to where the contacts list has gone - has it just be stolen by the hackers? &nbsp; &nbsp;

coenoby · Answer

there seems to be no answer as to where the contacts list has gone - has it just be stolen by the hackers? &nbsp; &nbsp;I don't know why the hacker would physically remove or delete the contacts from your webmail account. I would have thought they would simply have copied your contacts probably to use to send them&nbsp; spam/scam emails that appear to come from you,&nbsp;&nbsp; That old Amazon Gift voucher scam is a common one in those circumstances.They don't actually need access to you email account to do that. It is very easy for scammers/spammers to fake the sender address in an email to make it appear to come from you.&nbsp;If I were in your position, I would definitely run a full AV scam to check there is no malware on your device.that could have harvested your contacts list. Again, the spammer does not necessarily need to gain physical access to your email account to obtain your contacts list.Coenoby

RETDPMSO · Answer

I posted fresh item on this yesterday (EMAIL HACK) &nbsp;which explained more info. &nbsp; Besides the losts contacts list I have now found that the contents of certain email subject folders have disappeared. &nbsp;For example I had a folder that contained all the emails reading some work I was involved with. &nbsp; &nbsp;Yet the folder is now empty, the same applies to some but not all of the folders. &nbsp;Why some and not other? &nbsp; And are these recoverable?It is of note that the posting from yesterday now seems to have disappeared?The post also queried whether it is ever possible to talk to a UK based call centre I found the whole experience of dealing with the overseas call centre very frustrating not help with my hearing problems but the also the &nbsp;language barrier.

RETDPMSO · Answer

Just told off by moderator for having duplicate thread so now I know why yestrdays post has disappeared however my question above remains relevant. &nbsp;&nbsp;And as a PS I also noted that certain archive years have gone.

Buffer6 · Answer

Mailstore Home. allows you to archive all your emails from multiple email accountsIt's Free.&nbsp; You can set it up to retrieve all your emails from the IP&nbsp; and store them on your laptop/ PC/External drive, etc.;&nbsp;

Winelist · Answer

Your original post is still there;https://community.virginmedia.com/discussions/email/e-mail-hack/5612012I do agree though that sometimes a post appears to go missing only to reappear later, and I can fully understand why you might think it had somehow gone and hence start a new one.To answer your questions, although VM do have some UK based support staff, there is no ‘special number’ or trick to guarantee getting through to them. It’s all a matter of pot-luck and since the bulk of support is offshore it is very likely that you will be put through to them. There used to be a school of thought that calling just after 8am would increase your chances of getting a UK-based person. But recent posts on here suggest that this is no longer the case.Of course, 'your mileage may vary’, so you might want to try it and see.If, as you say, a third party gained (temporary) control of your email account, then who knows what they may have done with it, what they may have deleted or what their motivations might be. But VM don’t keep backups of your mailbox data, no more than the Royal Mail keep copies of every letter you sent or received, or who those letters were addressed to; just in case. The onus to keep copies is on you. So, if contacts and/or contents of folders have indeed been deleted and you don’t have copies then, alas they are gone.

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Email Hacked