Virgin Media Community

[GDL2]

Recently found out that my blueyonder email account had been hacked.  I have changed password etc and have contacted ebay and amazon etc to change log on details as the passwords had all been changed.  I am still getting some very strange emails into my account.  How do I stop this?  I have selected block sender etc however is there anything else I can do to increase the safety/security of the blueyonder email address?

[HowardML]

Good question. You have taken the recommended action so your account should now be secure. You should also scan your devices to make sure that you have no resident malware that might be disclosing your password to hackers. You should also check your VM web mail settings to ensure that you have no filters set that you do not recognise.

https://www.virginmedia.com/help/virgin-media-account-has-been-hacked

Not sure what you mean by "very strange emails". Describe but do not post them here. We'll advise if there is more information that we could look at to help you and see what might be going on. 

[GDL2]

Thank you for the response.  The strange emails I referred to in my post appear to be the emails that have been sent from the account.   I have gone through trash, spam and sent box and blocked/cleared all messages that I do not recognise etc.  I will also follow the info in your reply.  

Thanks again. 

[Ashleigh_C]

Hi there @GDL2 

Thank you very much for your post and I am so sorry to see this has happened with your email! 

Can I ask if the advice @HowardML has given you has helped explained this and if you are feeling more secure with your email now? 

Thank you. 

[GDL2]

Hi

Yes the reply did help. Regarding feeling more secure as this is the first time it has happened and I am trying to understand how exactly these things happen etc. But yes all good now.

Thanks.

[Steven_L]

Thanks for coming back to us @GDL2 and glad to hear that it's all good now.

Regards

Steven_L

[HowardML · Accepted solution]

@GDL2 

Then I think I should help again. Be prepared for a bit of a read.

There are two types of compromise which can happen to email accounts. The first is spoofing. The account is not interfered with. But what happens is that some uses your email address to disguise themselves when they spam. It can't be stopped. You have to live with it till it passes. What you see on your computer/device is a bunch of non-delivery messages from ISPs where the spoofer has sent emails but the recipients don't exist. VM have a useful and non-tech article here:

https://community.virginmedia.com/t5/Email/Email-Spoofing/m-p/2941294#M102560

Hacking is much more serious. This where the hackers get hold of not only your email address (virtually any one can do this, you spread it all over when you send mail or register on web sites so who doesn't know it, but then again how people know your physical home address - thousands?) but they also get your password. Now that is serious. The information often comes from data stolen from sites which themselves have been hacked. You can check this by Googling for "I've been pawned" and checking your email address. People often use the same credentials for their email accounts as they use for web sites, say when shopping. Sometimes the hackers guess because people use very common passwords.

But what the hackers then have is complete access to your email credentials, address and password, and without you being aware of it send email using those credentials via VM 's own mail servers but not using VM as an ISP. You can't see this but VM can. They take action to stop it because otherwise their mail servers will get blacklisted and many, many others will be stopped from sending legitimate mail. The hackers can also interfere and hijack your on-line accounts with Amazon and Spotify etc. by pretending to be you.

There's actually a lot more to it than this. I've skimmed over the topic but you should have enough to be getting on with.

Hope that helps.

Just one final tip on email security. Follow VM's guidance here for creating a secure password and never use the same password elsewhere that you have chosen for email.

https://www.virginmedia.com/help/how-to-create-a-strong-password

[GDL2]

Hi

Thank you very much for the information and yes I certainly have a better understanding of the situation etc. First time I have used the forum and have found it very helpful.