Virgin Media Community

[debbie21blue]

Hi my blueyonder email has been hacked. Facebook Etsy Ebay Amazon. Can I close this account down please and just use my virgin media email address? Thanks 

[coenoby · Accepted solution]

@debbie21blue wrote:

Hi my blueyonder email has been hacked. Facebook Etsy Ebay Amazon.

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The first thing I would say is that simply deleting the blueyonder  email account will not by itself solve your problem. In fact you could be making life more difficult for yourself instead of the hacker.

The hacker will still be able to sign into Facebook etc using your blueyonder address even when the email address itself has been deleted. Companies do not validate the email address each time you sign into your Facebook, Etsy etc online account. They simply check that the email address / password combination used to sign in matches the details that they currently hold.

Also, it will not stop the hacker sending emails that appear to come from your blueyonder address or from using your address to sign up for other online accounts.

Your first step should be to secure all those online accounts and make sure that you take the option to use any additional security facilities that their sites offer. All the sites you list offer 2 factor authentication, where in addition to supplying your password you receive  a code via text message before you can sign in. Even that is not an infallible way to keep hackers out but it makes it much more difficult for them to take over an account. These days fraudulent activity with online accounts ls so common that we all need to make it as difficult as possible for the criminals to access our accounts.

Rather than deleting the blueyonder account you could take all the steps in this help sheet to make it as secure as you can: https://www.virginmedia.com/help/virgin-media-account-has-been-hacked 

Finally, deleting the email address may be easy, see 1) or it may be impossible, see 2).

1) You may be able to delete the account yourself. Sign in to your "My Virgin Media" account (where you view your VM bills and other information about your broadband account)  https://my.virginmedia.com/home/signIn then click on "My Profile" and "My accounts".

That will give you a list of all the secondary email addresses set up within your account. If the address you want to delete is there, click on the "View/change" beside it and you will be given an option to delete it. All I can say is if you want to delete the account wait until you have secured your other online accounts and changed the sign in credentials before you delete the email address

2) The address cannot be deleted if it is your "Primary" address, the one you use to sign into your "My Virgin Media" account. However, if you do not access the email account for 90 days VM will suspend the email account.

If you cannot delete the email address yourself, provided you have a current VM broadband account, one of the VM Forum Team (VM employees who support this forum can take a look at it for you. They will contact you via this thread in a day or two and take the necessary details from you.

I hope this make sense. I cannot stress strongly enough that simply deleting an email address that has been hacked is not the best approach.

Coenoby

[debbie21blue]

Thanks for your answer. I have done as you suggested but they are continuing to send spam emails using my email address. It is driving me mad and I don’t know how to stop them. 

[David_Bn]

Thanks for your post debbie21blue,

Sorry to hear that your E-Mail address has been hacked, can you please advise me if you've been able to change the password on the E-Mail account and the other accounts that have been hacked?

Can you also tell me if this is the primary E-Mail address on your Media account or a secondary account?

Kindest regards,

David_Bn

[debbie21blue]

Hi thanks for your reply.  Yes I think I have now managed to change the password. It is a secondary account.

Thanks 

Debbie 

[David_Bn]

Thanks for coming back to me debbie21blue,

Have you now deleted this E-Mail account or are you now seeking for me to do this?

It may also be worth reviewing any firewalls you have on your devices to ensure that a repeat incident doesn't occur

Kindest regards,

David_Bn

[debbie21blue]

Hi no I haven’t deleted it as people were saying that’s not the answer. I don’t mind I just want them to stoping using my account Whatever way is best. I don’t use this account any longer.

I only use my email through my phone never a computer. 

Thanks Debbie 

[David_Bn]

You can delete it if you want to - and this can be done at your own leisure via self-care, as advised above.

If you're satisfied all passwords have been changed for your accounts, and you've followed the advice given from the link above, then deleting the E-Mail address may not be as costly to you

Kindest regards,

David_Bn

[debbie21blue]

Thanks I did try abs delete it but I couldn’t see how to do it. 

Debbie 

[David_Bn]

Thanks for coming back to me Debbie,

Just to reiterate what has been posted previously from @coenoby;

"Sign in to your "My Virgin Media" account (where you view your VM bills and other information about your broadband account)  https://my.virginmedia.com/home/signIn 

then click on "My Profile" and "My accounts".

That will give you a list of all the secondary email addresses set up within your account. If the address you want to delete is there,

click on the "View/change" beside it and you will be given an option to delete it.

All I can say is if you want to delete the account wait until you have secured your other online accounts and changed the sign in credentials before you delete the email address"

Can you confirm if you've been able to follow these steps to delete the E-Mail account?

Kindest regards,

David_Bn