Virgin Media Community

[Bendyboy99]

Hi, my partner has said that people in her address book are getting emails that appear to be from her but the email address is not hers just the display name. I have changed the password and normally would leave it at that, problem is the emails being sent are copies of her actual emails, has the account been hacked?

is there anything else I can do?

Thanks

[用心棒]

Consider following the advice Virgin Media provide here, My Virgin media email has been hacked | Virgin Media Help,

If appropriate, notify those she correspondence with to validate emails reportedly from her actual are and to be vigilant.

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[coenoby · Accepted solution]

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@Bendyboy99 wrote:

has the account been hacked?

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Personally I would have thought not.

My reason for saying that is if someone had hacked your partner's email account they would have discovered her password. If they knew her password  they would have been able to send emails using her actual email address rather than just using her display name to make their scam / spam emails merely appear to come from her.

However, it could well be malware on her device that is stealing the information and sending these emails from a device on her home broadband network. Those scam emails would not show up in her VM email account so she would be unaware it was happening.

If she is using a Microsoft Windows device I would suggest running a full antivirus scan. No AV is guaranteed to catch all Malware so I always think it is best to run a second scan with another product.   Malwarebytes. https://www.malwarebytes.com/  is a good option. The download is free and although they do encourage you to take the paid for option you can just keep using the free version for as long as you like. 

The other possibility is that it one of her contacts, possibly the original recipient of these emails, has had their email account compromised.  Were your partner's  emails that are now being sent out by the scammer originally sent to the same person or distribution list?  Bear in mind it could have been someone she cc'd into the original email not just the main recipient.

One final point.

Changing the password on her email account was a wise move but I'm sure you realise that it will not stop someone from continuing to send these scam / spam emails because they do not need to know her password to  do that.  These scam emails may well continue to appear for some time but it definitely does not mean someone is directly accessing her account.

Coenoby

[Natalie_L]

Hi Bendyboy99

Welcome to the Community and thank you for posting. 

I am sorry to hear your partner is experiencing issues with their email account.

Have you visited the links provided by 用心棒, if so has this helped at all?

If not, please do let us know and we will be happy to assist further. 

Thanks