My virginmedia.com emails have all gone

VM don't keep backups of emails, which is why users should do so. If the mail account has been hacked and emails deleted they are gone. 

But do check that the emails haven't been moved into other folders like spam or junk. 

Chessteruk​ 

"i noticed the 'Auto Forward All Email' box has an email address in it that is not mine."

That certainly sounds like very bad news. ☹ 

"Does this mean someone has hacked my email account" - if you did not set that auto forward then someone else did, so yes it looks as if your account has been hacked

" I have changed my password now. " - that's good but if the hacker still has the email account open on their device they can still access the account. To stop that you need to sign into the My Virgin Media account here

 https://www.virginmedia.com/my-virgin-media

 with the hacked email address and the new password. Then click on "Account settings", then "My Virgin Media account details. Then scroll down to the section "Sign out of all signed in devices". Once you click on "Sign out all devices" that will shut the hacker out.

" forwarded all my emails to themselves " The auto forward function in VM webmail only forwards new emails as they arrive so the fact the auto forward is on does not mean they have forwarded your emails that were already there. However..........

"deleted from my inbox,sent items etc" - if those folders are now empty then it does seem that the hacker has deleted them.

"What should I do" - the first thing I would do would be to check all my other online accounts such as eBay, Amazon, social media and any others that you have.. The reason I say that is because hackers often take over an email account to make it easier for them to hack the onlne accounts linked to it. They can easily reset the passwords for those other online accounts using each online site's "Forgotten password" process for example. They can also use your email account to set up new online accounts on other websites. I would say that's that's the biggest worry and potential threat that you have rather than the missing emails.

"can Virginmedia help reset my mailbox to an earlier time so I can retrieve my emails? " - assuming you are still a paying VM customer with a VM broadband account for example, you can certainly ask them but I think it's a long shot. VM do not seem to keep back up copies of emails. Sadly, if this VM email account is just a standalone account  then there's nothing VM can do I'm afraid.

One of the forum team (VM staff who support this forum) will contact you via this thread but I am not sure if there are many on duty today as it's a Bank Holiday.

I certainly hope that you can get this resolved but it is a real worry for you.

Coenoby

Once you have established that your emails are beyond recall, the safest way forward is to prevent the hacker from using that email address by asking VM to close it. This is something that you can't do yourself. 

Consider also when signed into webmail:

1. confirm missing emails are not in Trash folder
2. select ⚙  >  Setting  >  ▸ E-Mail  >  Change IMAP subscriptions …
3. select ▸ until all folder views are expanded
4. select any folder not selected, i.e. select ☐ 
5. select Save
6. review content of any folder selected in step 4 for missing emails

Also review all rules listed under ⚙  >  Setting  >  ▸ E-Mail  > Filter Rules , disable those you did not created, note there conditions and actions, and then delete them. If there were any auto-forward or redirect rules consider contacting the email service provider to notify them that the address is being misused for criminal activity

Thank you eceryone for your help and suggestions. I tried to log into my VM account. I entered the Account number and Area reference from a recent VM letter, to log in. The message "We've found an email address linked to this account" shows someone else's email address. There is no option for me to change it. I am unable to have a link, password or code etc, sent to my email that is linked to my VM account. I rang VM Customer Support but I was unable to complete Data Protection; the details I gave the Advisor, unsurprisingly don't now match those on my VM account. The Advisor asked me for the memorable word I set up nine years ago, but I don't now have a clue what that is. I offered my full name, full address, mobile phone number, Acount number and Area Ref; apparently that is not enough to clear DP. The Advisor said the best he can do is write to me with the memorable info I need in order to pass DP when I call VM again. In the meantime someone has access to my VM account and email address. I guess I can't even cancel my VM account without passing DP?! I imagine I have no option but to wait for that letter then.

In the meantime if you haven't done so far, it is very much worth following coenoby's advice above ASAP and looking at all external accounts that you log into using your virginmedia.com account such as Amazon, etc., and changing them as a minimum to a different email address, and if you don't do so today giving them different passwords. 

I have started doing that, thank you coenoby and Richardr1

Just a quick update.....My FB and Meta accounts were accessed from my hacked VM email address. My Snapchat was compromised too. I had some texts to my mobile phone to suggest suspicious activity from other apps which I managed to log into and change my VM email address to something else. Snapchat were very good after I told them what happened. They emailed me within minutes, on my back-up email address, that isn't even linked to my Snapchat. They said they suspended all activity on my account. They can't give me access until my VM is sorted, but they emailed a weblink to me were I can later get my access to Snapchat back. Hats off to them.