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Chessteruk's avatar
Chessteruk
Joining in
3 days ago

My virginmedia.com emails have all gone

I logged into my @virginmedia.com emails today and all my emails have gone. I have had this same email address since 2016 and I had hundreds of very important and private emails going back nine years. i noticed the 'Auto Forward All Email' box has an email address in it that is not mine. I have changed my password now. Does this mean someone has hacked my email account, forwarded all my emails to themselves and then deleted from my inbox, sent items etc? What should I do and can Virginmedia help reset my mailbox to an earlier time so I can retirieve my emails?  Thanks 

10 Replies

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  • jpeg1's avatar
    jpeg1
    Alessandro Volta
    3 days ago

    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's avatar
      Chessteruk
      Joining in
      3 days ago

      I checked spam and junk folders they are empty. So it isn't worth my contacting VM Customer support?! Everything is gone for good and in the hands of a hacker!? I had never been hacked before in nine years with VM.  I thougt my passwords and security were super-strong too. Thanks for replying.

      • Anonymous's avatar
        Anonymous
        3 days ago

        "I thougt[sic] my passwords and security were super-strong too."

        And yes they might be, but did you use the same password/username on any other website? Or even a slight variation of the password?

        For example you choose a really long and complex password for your banking - good; and then use the same password for 'Bob's Coffee Emporium' which has all the security of a borough market whelk stroll!

        So 'Bob's Coffee Emporium' gets hacked, it coughs up the username (email addresses) and passwords of their customers and the hackers try those combinations with other companies, banks etc! And often 'bingo'1

        And once in control of your email account, all bets are off, they will use that to gain access to all sorts of others things!

        I'm sorry, I am really sorry, but you have lost all of your email, they're gone, not coming back. VM do not keep backups, in fact they make it plain in the Ts & Cs that the onus is on you to do this.

        Now the one odd thing is this; if I were to hack your email and try to use it to take control of other services, the last thing I would do is to tip you off. Why delete your existing emails? Makes no sense. Keep you in the dark, quietly harvest your emails, use them to rip you off even more.

        So either we are dealing with a particularly incompetent hacker, or something else is going on.

  • coenoby's avatar
    coenoby
    Very Insightful Person
    3 days ago

    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

  • jpeg1's avatar
    jpeg1
    Alessandro Volta
    3 days ago

    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. 

  • 用心棒's avatar
    用心棒
    Very Insightful Person
    3 days ago

    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

  • Chessteruk's avatar
    Chessteruk
    Joining in
    20 hours ago

    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.

  • Richardr1's avatar
    Richardr1
    Superfast
    19 hours ago

    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.